Iconography

ic

Creating digital images is creating code in the first place. Images around us are like tips of icebergs today– what we see is merely one possible interpretation of an underlying, invisible description. 3D-programs generate both code and images out of virtually nothing. In the early 1990ies my work with 3D made me wonder if it is the physically produced image or rather the endlessly reproducible file that could be called a “unique” artwork.
Painted icons seem to be an antithesis to digital imagery. They are rather understood as vehicles or mirrors so that the single, physical work becomes more or less interchangeable. What icon painting and 3D editing have in common is their semiotic way of synthesizing images from a collection of visual elements by recombining them and gradually evolving their vocabulary.