On Burning Mirrors

There are two parts to the On Burning Mirrors exhibition; a series of typographic statements printed on paper which express concepts for imagined products, economic systems or realities and a series of portrait paintings, the subjects of which have been derived from machine-learning image generation tools.

The title ‘On Burning Mirrors’ comes from a book by Diocles from the 3rd century BC about parabolic mirrors which are mirrors which focus and reflect energy or light around a single point. They can be used to ignite a flame – hence the name of the book – or in modern applications gather a transmission, as in a satellite dish. Since moving out of the city and into the countryside several years ago, all of my internet access has arrived via satellite and it has become an important friend to me.

Works in the show are essentially reflections of individuals and of collective society. They are about how the systems we are within alter and deform us. In particular, they are about how we see ourselves within a world that has decreasing degrees of physical dimension by which we can orient our self-perception. The portraits are aggregate reflections of many, many other portraits, distilled into single faces via machine-learning algorithms. These tools create imagery from textual descriptions within minutes. The portraits presented here derive from variations on the phrase “portrait of a realistic sculpture of a colorful medieval peasant with animal parts”. The tool used is publicly accessible and is trained on a massive data set of imagery and is constantly being refined and improved to the point where it now produces almost flawless imagery that is “as expected”. However, there was a small window of a couple of years during the early evolution of these tools where the results were much wildly erratic and these portraits were created during that blip, before the algorithm had refined what was a ‘preferred’ aesthetic result. It was an interesting moment where the imagery that came back was unexpected, unusual and unpredictable and as such was a unique perspective on what it is to be a person, seen by non-human eyes.

The typographic works are hypothetical products and concepts which distill many unseen aspects of human, social life to reflect it back to an individual. The past 20 years of the internet has reduced each individual to abstracted data points which are allocated into various buckets for the purposes of targeted advertising, but it is rare that we are afforded that perspective on ourselves. I’ve been gathering these ideas over the last two decades as they have occurred to me, often prompted by encountering some new piece of technology like the blockchain or social media and considering what those things might be if they grew up with slightly different base parameters. Initially they came from thinking about how the concept of “big data” only feels manipulative because we, as individuals, don’t have access to both sides of the coin. If, however, we were allowed to see ourselves the way the data sees us, it could be revealing and helpful on a unique, personal level. Fundamentally, they are individual visions of alternate realities that are only slightly different from the one we find ourselves in. Like the AI generated portraits, at a glance they are instantly recognizable and seem like minor tweaks but the subtle irregularities reveal deeply fundamental shifts in the world they reflect.

I think we are less the individuals that we feel we are – or that many types of technology would like us to think we are on their forward facing side – and much more the collective culmination of many inputs that we are when viewed from the back facing side.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Jonathan Zawada

Jonathan Zawada (b.1981, Australia)

Known for his multi-faceted approach to the field of art and design which weave both the analogue and digital, artist Jonathan Zawada is often seeking to create tangible artefacts of transient, ephemeral virtual experiences in his work.

Centered around the intersection and blend between the artificial and the natural, Zawada’s world is hyperreal – delicate and intricately detailed, as well as bold and dynamic.

Zawada’s practice is informed by his early roots in web design and coding and his further evolution into commercial graphic design, illustration and art direction and now includes object and furniture design, sculpture, video, installation, and painting.

He has won awards for his graphic design including two Australian Record Industry Awards (ARIAS) for album artwork and has presented solo exhibitions of his oil paintings and installations in contemporary galleries around the world including Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo, London, Sydney, and Beijing. Also, he has been appointed as the director for the lighting of the Sails of the Sydney Opera House for the Vivid 2018 where he displayed a 15-minute projection mapped piece entitled Metamathemagical.

Zawada runs the gauntlet of commercial and non-commercial realms; he has a foot firmly in both the commercial and fine art camps, when asked to describe his practice he says, “recently I’ve simply settled on the idea that I like to make things”.

“When I was first introduced to Jonathan’s work the first thing that impressed me was the Diversity of it all and at the same time still a constant voice shining through. I also really enjoy the Rich Vibrancy and boldness, above all though its Jonathan himself and when you look at his work you are seeing various aspects of his personality and outlook on life.”
Mark Pritchard

CV

Solo Exhibition
2005:
Semantic Webs at Monster Children Gallery, Sydney, Australia

2008:
Boolean Values at Monster Children Gallery, Sydney, Australia

2011:
Over Time at Prism Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
Free Dumb at Vallery, Barcelona, Spain

2012:
Free Roam Above the Mist at Prism Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
Kindred Spirits at Colette, Paris, France

2013:
Casual Hardcore at Prism Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
PWND at The Popular Workshop gallery in San Francisco, USA

2014:
Real 3D at Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney, Australia
Touchingly Unfeeling at Calm & Punk Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2015:
A Particular Turbulant Wave at BEERS, London, UK
My Sentiments Exactly at Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney, Australia

Group and 2-person Exhibitions
2008:
New Moon at Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney, Australia
Alphabet at Monster Children Gallery, Sydney, Australia

2009:
Glory Holes at Monster Children Gallery, Sydney, Australia
Batteries Not Included at ACP, Sydney, Australia
Record Time at Palmer Projects, Sydney, Australia
Roku at Monster Children Gallery, Sydney, Australia

2010:
Disorder Disorder at Penrith Regional Gallery, Sydney, Australia
It Was On Earth That I Knew Joy at Scion, Los Angeles, USA
Some Type of Wonderful at China Heights, Sydney, Australia
Semiotics at Nine Lives Gallery, Brisbane, Australia

2011:
O at Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney, Australia
Sunset Etc. at Prism Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
Posters of Fortune at Type Directors Club, New York, USA

2012:
Then x Ten, The Power of the Poster, A Herman Miller Exhibition at Fortyfive Downstairs,
Melbourne , Australia

2014:
100% Potential with Ben Barretto at Ben Barretto’s Studio, Los Angeles, USA

2016:
Skin with Flume at Special Group Studios, Sydney, Australia.
Skin with Flume at Space15Twenty, Los Angeles, USA.
Under The Sun with Mark Pritchard at Red Bull Music Studios, New York, USA.

2018:
Chroma at Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney, Australia
Open House at Furth & Yashar, Los Angeles, USA

2019:
Phenomenon: RGB at Leforet Museum, Tokyo, Japan

Event
2015:
Goldfish in collaboration with Kim Laughton at the Tomorrow’s Party art and music festival, Beijing, China

2018:
Metamathemagical, a 15-minutes projection mapping piece for Sydney Opera House, at Vivid, Sydney, Australia