Spring Catalogue Exhibition 2009
Sara Hughes
Data Crash 2, 2009
acrylic on linen, 800 x 800mm
signed and dated verso: Sara Hughes / Data Crash 2 / 2009
Sara Hughes is known for her complex, vibrant and optical paintings. Her work has often dealt with the ways in which information is exchanged and how, in a world saturated by media and technology, such transactions have became mediated and regulated by information.
Created in Berlin while Hughes was completing a residency at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien as recipient of the 2008/09 Creative New Zealand Berlin Visual Artists Residency, Data Crash 2 (2009) and Data Crash 3 (2009) relate conceptually to her Crash series which began in 2006. The Crash series was made in response to William Gibson's science fiction novel Pattern Recognition (2002) in which the protagonist has a psychological sensitivity to corporate symbols. The novel's central theme examines the human desire to detect patterns or meaning and the risks of finding patterns in meaningless data.
The use of colour in Data Crash 2 and Data Crash 3 relates more specially to her current practice which investigates imagery and data in relation to patterns of behaviour, configurations of spectacle and national identity, as portrayed by the use of colour in consumerism. Her focus is on the ways colour is used in marketing and branding to create identity and brand recognition. AJ
