QR Code Works

We see QR codes everywhere, and I’ve been interested how these beautiful little squares act as tiny gatekeepers between us and information. It’s a sort of calligraphy, some signs that point to meaning. But in this case the calligraphy requires an intervening technology to decode the meaning.

For a series of works I encoded the entirety of the Tibetan Book of the Dead into QR codes. Along the lines of calligraphy, the codes are another means to encode information, another way to pass down learnings from person to person, from one century to another. The difficulty of decoding the work for me seems a bit like trying to understand something from another place and time. It’s not easy.

Another aligned group of works uses parts of Homer’s Odyssey, another ancient text, and again looks at the distancing that this beautiful technology adds.

That distancing from a text also plays a role in a pair of pieces created in shocked reaction to the Uvaldi Texas school shootings. Horrors happen, but dulled by horror after horror, it’s hard to re-experience and stay engaged with the fresh emotions and the sense that something has to be done.

…and sometimes the codes are just a fun puzzle that has to be solved to unopen a surprise inside…

Video documentation of Twenty-Two Flags (Bardo Thodol, Complete, Books 1-2) 2014, suspended fabric flags in display case, electric fans, 7-month installation at a TSA checkpoint at the San Diego International Airport. Approximately 9 x 18 x 1 feet.

Bardo Thodol, Book I, 2013, print on aluminum panel, 42 x 30 inches

Bardo Thodol, Book II, 2013, print on aluminum panel, 42 x 30 inches

TBOD-Indeed all these are like dreams like hallucinations like echoes-OVERHEAD VIEW

Mandala (“Indeed all these are like dreams like hallucinations like echoes…”) from Bardo Thodol, 2013. Graphite, sand on floor, dimensions variable, 42 x 42 inches minimum. Overhead view.

-Indeed all these are like dreams like hallucinations like echoes-ALT DETAIL FROM SIDE

Mandala (“Indeed all these are like dreams like hallucinations like echoes…”) from Bardo Thodol, 2013. Graphite, sand on floor, dimensions variable, 42 x 42 inches minimum. Detail.

Mandala (“Act so as to trust in that dazzling light”) from Bardo Thodol, 2013. Graphite and plaster on panel, aluminum, 15 x 15 inches.

Bardo Thodol, Book 2, Part 1, 2013. Printed fabric, pigments, beeswax, poplar, steel, 26 x 34 inches.

Bardo Thodol, Book 1, Part 1, 2013. Printed fabric, pigments, beeswax, poplar, steel, 26 x 34 inches.

Sentry (“Come, tell me the following and relate it precisely, where have you wandered…”) from the Odyssey, 2022. Marble mosaic on porcelain, 30 x 30 x 1 inches.

Sentry (“Come, tell me the following and relate it precisely, where have you wandered…”) from the Odyssey, 2022. Marble mosaic on porcelain, 30 x 30 x 1 inches. Installation view.

Uvaldi 1 (“Why?/This?”) 2022. Marble mosaic, fiberglass mesh on porcelain, 18 x 18 inches.

Uvaldi 2 (“God?/Guts?/Guns?”) 2022. Marble mosaic, glass tile on porcelain, 18 x 16 inches.

For Erika (“So./Much./Joy.”) 2022. Graphite on paper, 11 x 8 1/2 inches.