Kenny Cole
These works incorporate collaged magazine cutouts sized to the
proportions of a smartphone screen. My process is simply to incise
a grid into a magazine. Each magazine then produces hundreds
of screens, most of which I reject and the best of which form
accidental compositions resulting from the chance placement of
the grid on the particular magazine’s layout, design, and subject
matter. The phone bezel, that distinctive frame with its two wide
ends designed to reduce unintentional inputs on a touch screen
and rounded corners designed to facilitate smooth handling,
recontextualizes the content of old-school media and establishes
its lineage with the energized media of today. By painting on
and around the collage screens, I can open up the narrative and
engage with issues related to technology and the larger cultural
phenomenon of interconnectivity and human experience. Absent
the dynamics of electronics and interactivity, the collages then
allow for a more resonant contemplation of content and form
through the experience of static art.