Sherry Karver’s Pixelated Photographs Reveal a Glitch in the System
Editor’s note: an earlier version of this post ran in 2022. We’re publishing this update in honor of our August 2023 exhibition, Art and Tech, which includes work from Sherry Karver.
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Sherry Karver waits, camera-ready, for a glitch in the system. In her series of unaltered photographs, Movement Interrupted, the multidisciplinary artist snaps pictures of a pixelated television screen, the ghost of a changing image peering through the fragments. Describing the process in her artist statement, she says, “The images I am photographing on the TV screen appear for just a moment and become deconstructed, stretching the colors, lines, and shapes into a new format, from recognizable to almost abstract.” The photographs are printed as dye sublimation on metal, without help from Photoshop or an algorithm.
Created in moments of happenstance, Sherry’s work requires the patience of someone willing to wait for unplanned static. Even then, the resulting image is a complete surprise. Embracing uncertainty, chance, and luck, Sherry’s work is equal parts unsettling and hopeful, an alchemist’s brew of 21st-century anxieties and dreams.“This method of working is exciting to me because it is almost like magic, where the TV is ‘channeling’ these shots,” she says. “And I am there to capture the split second in a photograph before it vanishes forever.”
Punctuated by bright pixels, Movement Interrupted reveals technology’s influence and interaction with the environment around it. A metaphor for social disintegration, Sherry’s fragmented work leaves room for cautious optimism and even resilience and innovation. “It seems that we are in a difficult period in our history, where things seem to be disintegrating and falling apart, which is what my work reflects,” she says. “At the same time, I try to see the beauty and hopefulness in the uncertainty.”
Scroll through to see more work from Sherry Karver, then head over to NOT REAL ART’s August 2023 exhibition, Art and Tech, to see her submission, “Not Looking Back.”
“I try to see the beauty and hopefulness in the uncertainty.” — Sherry Karver
Sherry Karver: Website | Instagram | Facebook
All photos published with permission of the artist(s).
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