Xian Tao

These paintings are an exploration of the faultiness of human memory in the digital era, as well as the sense of alienation we all experience with respect to images. Using images to reflect the idea of seeing, recalling, and distancing, I attempt to create spaces for critical thinking.

These paintings were produced by scanning images. When the scanner begins operating, I shift the image on the flatbed, or occasionally remove the image to create a sense of distortion or glitch on the image. The images are partially destroyed by the light sensors or fragmented by the glitch. Each element occupies a specific dimensional space but all coexist in the same large flat picture plane. The resulting image becomes autonomous, which is consistent with the process of making paintings. In painting, different gestures consist of an autonomous reality; they are not merely representational. Differing from the photograph, which is fixed at the moment it was taken, painting encompasses a passage of time. It stops the viewer, and forces him or her to enter its time. tao-xian.net