Analogital, the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art’s (UMOCA) new exhibit, explores the transition from analogue to digital through works from various international artists.
Some of the exhibit’s art is projected or on a television, while other works are paintings or sculptures. Aaron Moulton, the senior curator of UMOCA, said that this exhibit shows the “in-between of analogue and digital.”
“It’s a topic that is being used very actively, this shift in materials, the shift in technologies,” says Moulton.
The exhibition runs through April 20. Analogital is free to the public, and SLCC students who are enrolled in art classes can also take a free tour through the museum.
More information on the exhibition and the museum can be found at www.utahmoca.org.
Moulton said that the exhibit is being shown now because the world is transitioning to digital.
“I feel the longer you wait the less visible this idea becomes,” says Moulton.
Analogital is an international exhibition that features artists from around the world including German artist Ignacio Uriarte and local artist and BYU professor Daniel Everett.
One concept at the show is a thing that references itself – a copy of a copy, such as when Disney sometimes copies itself in its own animated movies
In the movie The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Christopher Robin and Pooh walk on the rock by the tree and throw rocks. In The Jungle Book, Mowgli walks on the rock by the waterfall also while throwing rocks.
Uriarte also exemplifies a copy of a copy in the piece Black Oval. To show how technology makes things change, Uriarte took a black oval and made a copy of it, then made a copy of that copy, and so on. The transition is shown as a video.
Another concept the exhibit explores is digital media showing or using analogue, and analogue art, such as sculptures, of digital objects.
Jennifer West, an artist known for digitized film, takes filmed footage and manipulates it by hand. As a result, lines of color can be seen during playback.
All of the artwork is positioned by medium, which ranges from sculpture to painting to video projection
The handmade works are in one half of the room; digital works are in another.
According to the UMOCA curator of education Jared Steffensen, the most popular piece among audiences is I Shot Andy Warhol by Cory Arcangel, which Steffensen says is popular because it’s part of pop culture.
He also says that artists in this exhibition are not well known to students.
“People know what the Nintendo gaming system is,” says Steffensen. “Although, now it’s the Wii, people still know what Nintendo is. It’s easy for people to relate to that work.”
Museum staff wants the visiting public to understand the relationship people have with technology.
Moulton says this exhibition shows “how far we’ve come and can’t go back.”
