Petra Cortright ‘Niki Lucy Lola Viola’ (Installation View), all images courtesy of Jeff McLane
Currently at The Depart Foundation is NIKI, LUCY, LOLA, VIOLA, a solo exhibition by Los Angeles based artist Petra Cortright, curated by Paul Young. Brightly illuminating the pitch black walls of The Depart Foundation, Cortright presents a series of works that delve into the imaginative depths of the internet-literate modern mind. Video and animation are approached with careful attention to composition, transforming them into fully immersive presentations that function in both time and space. As Cortright pushes the limitations of her compositions, she also familiarizes viewers with videos, digital paintings, and flash animations that utilize the aesthetic and landscape of the digital.
Petra Cortright ‘Niki Lucy Lola Viola’ (Installation View)
Speaking in this vernacular, Cortright sources screensaver software, open source imagery and readily available online materials to create completely virtual, synthetic scenes that have the meditative qualities of painting. Conceptually blending these with painted gestures, Cortright transforms visual sources that are used and understood by everyone into personally expressive scenes. Light atmospheric sounds accompany the work, transporting viewers into a world of alternate, dreamlike realities.
Petra Cortright ‘Niki Lucy Lola Viola’ (Installation View)
The titular ‘NiKI LUCY LOLA VIOLA’ is a new video piece expressing concepts surrounding internet culture, such as its ties to reality, deception, desire and accessibility. Comprised of downloaded footage of dancing strippers, Cortright imports the sexually-fulfilling subtexts that the Internet hints at, promises or withholds, into her work. Altering perceptions of reality, the dancers are displayed on an editing green screen, a conceptual decision that brings a layer of contemplated interpretation, and implies raw footage and unrealistic points of perspective. The result are often moments too crisp and perfect to be real, speaking directly to the deceptive elements of digital medium.
Petra Cortright ‘Niki Lucy Lola Viola’ (Installation View)
Another work, ‘New_ Pink_ Sky_ With_ White_ Dress.swf’ is a digital painting, rather than a video animation. Much like others in the show, it has moments that remain still and compositional, prompting viewers to get lost in the imagery. Cohesively incorporating digital paintings that are comprised of hundreds of digital layers, the work abandons time and directs the viewer’s focuses to the absence of a concrete reality.
Petra Cortright ‘Niki Lucy Lola Viola’ (Installation View)
A product of an image saturated, reality -altering age of technology Cortright is an artist that eagerly harnesses the changes that have come with a process of embracing the new tools of self-expression defining the first decades of the twenty-first century. Up until Sept 18th at The Depart Foundation, NIKI LUCY LOLA VIOLA is a playful battle between the possibilities of the internet and the necessities of reality.
— R. Williams
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Depart Foundation[Exhibition Page]
