Sophist Paradise
5 December 2018

Gianni Wise, Sophist Paradise, 96x 60cm, Pigment, pen and reversed acetone printing on montage, on Japan Calligraphy acid-free paper. Photo the artist.

This work has been rendered out of self-induced dream-wake states, induced by, yet not serving political memes inherent in social media. The heads are buffeted by networks of global conspiracies. Their neuroses are liberated golem-like out of these mediated interconnections. These golem creatures animate as anthropomorphic beings — magically emerging out of inanimate matter — like art. And the title–well that’s another play with reality. Negotiating the aesthetics in the development of Sophist Paradise  was a struggle. It didn’t appear quite sincere–it was the aesthetics of the relationship of faces to the other elements in the work–like leering figures in a masquerade ball when placed these against the straight-lined intentionality of the drawn networks behind them.  Yet the reality here in this work is that these faces form an aesthetic union with the network in the way that the non-temporality of quantum physics break and resist conventional temporal views. Here is the resistance. It’s an aesthetic one. With a subtle political dimension.

This work has been rendered out of self-induced dream-wake states, induced by, yet not serving easily read memes. 

The floating heads are imagined as golem-like figures buffeted by ‘networks’ of global conspiracies. ‘networks’ multiply their neuroses almost golem-like out of these conspiratorial interconnections. I imagine these golem creatures animate as anthropomorphic beings — magically emerging out of inanimate matter — as art does. The title merges out of another play with reality. Negotiating the aesthetics in the development of Sophist Paradise was a struggle. It didn’t appear quite sincere–it was the aesthetics of the relationship of faces to the other elements in the work–like leering figures in a masquerade ball when placed these against the straight-lined intentionality of the drawn networks behind them.  Yet the reality here in this work is that these faces form an aesthetic union with the network in the way that the non-temporality of quantum physics break and resist conventional temporal views. Here is the resistance. It’s an aesthetic one. With a subtle political dimension.