Transcend Traverse investigates the possibilities of existence beyond the physical body, questioning how emerging technologies might transform human consciousness, identity, and our experience of reality. Expanding upon earlier explorations of biological and technological integration, the exhibition imagines a post-physical existence in which perception, appearance, and environment are no longer necessarily determined by material conditions. Through digital collage, sculptural assemblage, and large-scale installations, the work explores the increasingly uncertain boundaries between physical experience, virtual environments, and technologically constructed realities.
Building upon earlier explorations of the Nanoverse as a speculative technological universe, Transcend Traverse shifts from observing imagined environments toward inhabiting them. Human figures appear with their heads completely enveloped in spherical holographic interfaces, suggesting a state of integration in which virtual and augmented realities mediate both their perception of the world and the identities they project to others. Within these environments, physical appearance and perceived reality become increasingly malleable, raising questions about authenticity, consciousness, and the possibility of existence beyond conventional biological constraints.
The exhibition expands these investigations into the gallery through large-scale banners, wall installations, and sculptural forms. Nano Galaxy extends beyond its central panel through expansive vinyl elements, while a large-scale wall installation explores the relationship between biological coding and technological systems. Individual colored acrylic panels, mounted away from the wall, incorporate vinyl nanobot symbols corresponding to the four DNA bases—guanine, adenine, thymine, and cytosine (G, A, T, C). Repeated and recombined across the installation, these symbols cast shadows onto the wall as light passes through the acrylic, creating an interplay of color, physical form, and projected imagery.
In Golconda, inspired by René Magritte's 1953 painting of the same name, repeated human figures occupy a disc approaching or departing an unfamiliar planetary surface. Constructed from digitally assembled analog imagery, including a medical image of an eye used as the sky, the composition captures an unresolved moment in which the figures' origins, destination, and relationship to the environment remain unknown.
The exhibition was also informed by the death of my brother in 2014 and an earlier conversation about the possibility of consciousness traveling beyond the limitations of the physical body. This personal experience introduced another dimension to the work's consideration of mortality, transcendence, and existence beyond physical constraints.
Through its collision of historical imagery, speculative technologies, and constructed environments, Transcend Traverse considers how humanity might inhabit realities of its own making, questioning whether technological advancement will expand human experience or increasingly obscure the distinction between what is physical, simulated, and imagined.
Materials
Digital and analog collage, acrylic paint, colored acrylic sheet, silkscreen, epoxy resin, Baltic birch plywood, vinyl, and mixed-media assemblage.
Digital and analog collage, acrylic paint, colored acrylic sheet, silkscreen, epoxy resin, Baltic birch plywood, vinyl, and mixed-media assemblage.
Exhibition
Shift Gallery
Seattle, 2016
Shift Gallery
Seattle, 2016
