Artists Statement

This piece of work developed from an interest in issues within society mainly those concerned with surveillance and identity. I began with looking at methods of surveillance concentrating on fingerprints as a form of identification and a way to monitor us and I then moved onto thinking of these as natural barcodes. This then progressed into making a comment on the consumerist society in which we live. I began to create barcodes of my own taking influence from Marcus Harvey and DNA11 initially then Scott Blake and Barnard Solco who are both barcode artists. We are all consumers and within this piece there are names of friends and family coded into the numbers using predictive text. The first eight lines of the barcodes are not fully coded some fragments of names can be found by the viewer within the first few bars of the barcode including several celebrities. Gradually after this point, from left to right, the numbers become complete codes and full names begin to appear. I used the internet as a tool in this work using the social networking site Facebook to ask people for their permission to use their name within the work, by using this I felt I could explore another aspect of the media by which was are consumed. By also using predictive text I am asking people to defy the tradition that mobile phones must not be used in a gallery/exhibition and in turn defy society’s conformity, through consumerism we are all the same, we buy the same products, like the same food etc thus we have become a commodity. I felt that these elements would combine to allow there to be an indication of the type of society in which we live as we are consumed by celebrities, material objects, certain products/brands and the media. The piece allows a viewer to become consumed by the hypnotic nature of the barcodes and also by finding out the information hidden within the coded numbers. All of the barcodes and numbers are hand drawn and it took over twenty four hours to draw all the barcodes and numbers. This piece consumed many things from me, taking my time and thoughts away from other issues within my own personal life. I chose to hand draw the bar codes to experience how it would feel to be consumed by something. This reflects the part of my personality which can be obsessive and is most evident within my art practice. I felt that this method was more appropriate than any type of printing method which I felt would be the easier, less consuming option. It also allows there to be a more human element to the barcodes allowing a connection between the clinical, structured nature of barcodes and the messy, emotional nature of society due to mistakes made by me such as drawing the wrong or too many numbers in a name. There is a juxtaposition of structure and chaos within the work.


Does it make sense?