Art in the (Post-)Digital Age

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1. Kiron Robinson, If you want my mind, you can take my pain as well (still), 2023, online durational performance, wood, and acrylic paint, dimensions variable. Copyright Kiron Robinson, courtesy Kiron Robinson, Sarah Scout Presents, Melbourne, and National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. / 2. Rel Pham, Electric Dirge (still), 2021, moving image, 3 minutes 29 seconds. Copyright Rel Pham, courtesy Rel Pham and 4A Centre for Contemporary Art, Sydney. / 3. Georgia Banks, DataBaes (still), 2023, moving image, 11 minutes 12 seconds. Videography by David Meagher. Copyright Georgia Banks, courtesy Georgia Banks and National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. / 4. Amalia Lindo, Telltale: Economies of Time (render), 2022-23, 12-channel video, 12-channel panned audio, 6 hours 55 minutes, dimensions variable. Render by Tommaso Nervegna-Reed. Copyright Amalia Lindo, courtesy Amalia Lindo, Haydens Gallery, Melbourne, and National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

Digital

Print

“Life speaks in the present; so does art. Technology brings change, but it can’t provide answers to the questions or understanding of the transformation it brings about. Art is a way in which we come to terms with these changes, through these changes, using these changes. Artists place themselves in the work and sacrifice themselves to the work, in order to make sense of the changed and changing world around them, and to help us do the same. As Pham (who describes himself as “neither technophilic nor technophobic”) says, “I have to put myself into this technology in order to understand it.” In the same ways we write novels (themselves a consequence of the radical innovation of the printing press) in the first person and paint self-portraits, we now present, and examine, our selves and our lives in the post-digital age. This is the art we have, and this is the art we deserve: to have and to hold, for better and for worse, as long as we each may live – and maybe after.”