Plants, Motifs, and Cultural Symbols Are Superimposed onto Digital Portraits by Sam Rodriguez
All photos © Sam Rodriguez, shared with permission
San Jose-based artist Sam Rodriguez would possibly liken an summary leaf sprouting from a younger lady’s garment or a Pac-Man-esque rendering floating close to a topic’s face to scenic parts. His portraits, which he’s been referring to as “cultural landscapes” for the previous few years, are topographies of id that contain changing timber, rivers, and horizons with social markers. “It’s attention-grabbing to see the countless variants that every particular person carries after we unpack who they’re,” he shares with Colossal.
Knowledgeable by the analog methods that had been the muse of his early follow, Rodriguez has been working digitally since 2018, rendering portraits rife with symbols. He references an abundance of layers evocative of a visible modifying program however incorporates every aspect as if a characteristic of an unseen augmented actuality app. Typically, he deconstructs a nation’s or group’s flag and recontextualizes its colour palette, whereas others, he superimposes crops, minimal emblems, and bits of typography into densely constructed motifs. His works rely on discovery, he shares, explaining additional:
In the course of the course of, you take in, pattern, and prepare dinner visible elements and afterwards you might be left as an viewers member questioning what it’s that you simply’ve simply made. In that regard, I really feel that every piece (outdoors of commissions) is a form of style check… This method might be a byproduct of our time interval the place digital and bodily co-exist so seamlessly. It must be famous that I’m mimicking what so many musicians have achieved because the 80s, particularly in hip-hop with sampling for beats.
Presently, Rodriguez is at work on a e-book about how prosthetics and synthetic intelligence require rebalancing the connection between humanity and know-how. You may observe information on its launch on his Instagram, and head to his shop so as to add certainly one of his prints to your assortment.
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