January 23, 2006
Virginia
Virginia is a digital artwork by the British artist Julian Opie, who for some time has been making these very pared down portraits of people and landscapes. Sometimes these people are walking, sometimes (like Virginia) they’re simply staring straight ahead, blinking. What I think is really startling about his work is that no matter how reductive these portraits get, they always seem to be engrossing and compelling to watch. I think he’s somehow managed to wrangle elements of both Pop Art (and here someone like Allan D’Arcangelo comes to mind) and contemporary advertising to make these weird vessels that can both contain our projections and fantasies and help us make new ones.
It’s also possible I’m spending too much time with Virginia.
You can download Virginia at the artist’s website, where there’s information about his other works, some of which are also available for download. If you’re in New York you can see some of his newest work installed outdoors as part of a project for the Public Art Fund at City Hall.