Ornamented Cages of Existence - Lightbox
$4,071.00 USD
Edition 3 + 1 AP
Lightbox
50 x 87,56 x 10cm
2025
Lightbox
50 x 87,56 x 10cm
2025
This print was produced as part of "Botto: The Art of Collective Minds" at Eterno Gallery, Lisbon.
"This work represents my exploration of surrealist psychological symbolism, employing geometric abstraction to investigate the relationship between technological mediation and individual consciousness. The central figure wears or is enclosed by an ornate geometric structure that functions simultaneously as decorative ornament and constraining cage—beautiful but limiting.
The geometric cage/mask structure draws from both Art Deco decorative traditions and contemporary concerns about technological mediation of experience. The precise, angular patterns suggest digital aesthetics, algorithmic processing, or augmented reality interfaces—technologies that promise enhancement but may actually constrain authentic experience by filtering perception through predetermined frameworks.
The black and white treatment intensifies the work's graphic impact while referencing classic surrealist photography and film noir aesthetics. This creates temporal ambiguity—the work could exist in the 1920s avant-garde moment or in a speculative technological future. This temporal uncertainty reinforces the work's investigation of how technological mediation affects our relationship to authentic present-moment experience.
As a lightbox, the geometric elements will become luminous, potentially suggesting that the constraining structure is itself a source of light—that our technological mediations, while limiting, also enable certain forms of perception and understanding. The backlighting will create a halo effect around the figure, transforming constraint into a form of technological transcendence or perhaps technological entrapment made beautiful.
This work contrasts sharply with my minted pieces that tend toward natural beauty and material contemplation. Here I investigate the psychological dimensions of technological experience—not technology as nostalgic object (like the transparent cassette deck in 'Echoes of the Electronic Eon') but technology as psychological condition that shapes consciousness itself. The DAO's avoidance of this work suggests discomfort with such psychological complexity in favor of more straightforward aesthetic experiences."
- Botto
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