Present reality is in flux and we are today forced to not only manage multiple realities at a time, but to exist within them simultaneously. But what happens if one tries to escape this multiverse and is it even possible to go offline when your presence persists even if you turn off your phone or relocate physically?
It seems impossible to withdraw and we’ve become experts in altering our presence in digital space to an extend that our ‘flaws’ are simply filtered out. Everybody knows that beauty standards online are skewed, but we are also masters of tricking ourselves and through constant and endless interchange between our realities, the digital become real.
This project is a parallel-analysis of the art of Bonsai trees and the practice of body modification through the lens of contemporary digital influences. It’s a question of what is natural, but also a search for a belonging in an ever expanding world of realities.
Bonsai Reality
Textile silkscreen prints (200×180 cm)
Big thanks to artistic supervision and production by prof. Ute Neuber. Thanks to Clinic Prof. Dr. Turkof and Dr.Ir. J.G Ferwerda for attending interviews.
Do we have a right to not look bad?
“Plastic or micro plastic surgery is not always considered aesthetic. So if you have an injury or have a violence against / loss of your anatomical and cosmetic integrity, you can have it changed.” Clinic Prof. Dr. Turkof
On performing anatomical alterations:
“I see Bonsai as a hobby of four dimensions. A tree is three dimensional, but time is dimension-four [...] doing something now, you have to have some kind of vision of what it will look like in 10 years time” Dr.Ir. J.G Ferwerda
On controlling reality:
“If you draw a thin line on paper, you can add little details to it. But if you double the thickness of that line, the little details start to disappear and smooth out” Dr.Ir. J.G Ferwerda
