Joshua Kennington

Surface Motives

Set in a liminal space, this work, a stretched canvas with a set of illuminated eyes within it, looks out to the viewer. It meets their eyes as it's studied, never breaking contact, always watching. But being so humbly made, of wood, canvas and the mechanism which produces its gaze, its not a threatening presence. It just is.

“Surface Motives is an exploration of our infallible biological pursuit to find the human in our everyday surroundings, investigating our attempts to humanize technology as it adapts and engages with the evolving practices of reading and consuming media in the contemporary moment. This work speaks on how we codify the ephemeral, rationalizing the familiar as a comforting presence. But under this illusion, the canvas behaves as a veil, a mask. It's something we're not aware of, for what really is behind the surface? An uncanny recognition is realized through the canvas, a relative resemblance that approaches a likeness to the human, but remains bound by conventional object-hood. One may be forgiven for seeing a likeness to the human, but in this manifestation, is the object attempting to mold itself in the image of its creator, or are we as the viewer trying to assimilate this object in our vision, asserting meanings and unconditional labels onto it as is in our nature? This work becomes a question of authorship, and how objects are no longer governed by humanistic convention, and become autonomous entities. At what point do objects become sentient, separate and independent from our gaze? And ultimately, what does it mean to be human, in an age when the digital becomes ever closer in replicating our likeness, through algorithm mechanics, automated intelligence and deepfakes.”