Remaster; the Psychology of Repetition
The Psychology of Repetition is a series of single images comprising a larger body of work. The work produces questions pertinent to postcoloniality, capitalist hegemony, and, hegemony within art, representation, and imaging. It examines repetition as a human impulse through a range of lenses, including personal confession, Freudian theory, and the histories of colonialization, globalized culture and economy.
Composed of digital files, collages and pastel drawings, the series remasters and reinhabits works by Dutch painter, Johannes Vermeer. Each image is the same dimension and formal composition as its respective Vermeer original. The occupants, props, and history that constitute Vermeer’s works are erased, rewritten, and reprocessed through montage. In lieu of the oils preferred by 17th century European painters, The Psychology of Repetition employs the material impermanence and fragility of soft pastel.
In 2020 The Palais des Beaux Arts acquired the digital Photoshop files that were produced as studies for the pastel on paper series. An interactive work, The Psychology of Repetition digital files allow participants to inhabit the remastered image through layers of formal composition, historical content, and contemplative reflection.
