In an increasingly digital world what is happening to the artifact? Essays, art, and digital histories all exist online, in a space independent from the physical realm. Kenta Murakami writes: “I am not asking about replacing objects with digital replicas, but asking about the creation of independent digital objects. The…
Lesser Gonzalez’s Alternative Artifacts series unsettles our assumptions of ancient artifacts and the illusion of, what the artist calls, “indeterminable origin.” Through digital artistry, Gonzalez fabricates objects that possess the aesthetic of notable artifacts within a simulated museum archival process (i.e. digital photography). In doing so, he questions the routine digitization of objects…
The artifact is affirmation. It is the index of that which came before; the something that sits as evidence of time to remind viewers that time exists. The artifact is evidence of time because it moves with time. It ages. It wears. It degrades. Its time gives a particular aesthetic…