In its short history, computer graphics has changed so rapidly that it isn’t surprising to see a nostalgic return to the flat, heavily pixelated shapes of its early years. Jagged fonts and simple block-like images are readily used in current product advertising and graphic design. Even industries obsessed with the new, such as electronic music, hip clothing stores and cutting-edge computer related enterprises, incorporate this look back into their overall aesthetic. The pairing of old technology with the newest and latest plays out in a strange contradiction that uses the old to stand for the newretro-futurism.

There is a distinct retro-futuristic effect at work in Jeremy Blake’s Angel Dust. With its simple shapes, flat layering of images, synthetic sounds and slow movements, this digital projection is reminiscent of early video games. Graphic shapes move with concise and calculated precision in an unpredictable, but recognizable, formula. A shift in design and colour suggests a move to different worlds or levels and distinct sounds signify specific movements. All the actions unfold without a spectacular show of special effects or a sense of bravado. Instead of erasing evidence of the work’s digital source or pushing the technology to emphasize its latest feats, Blake’s use of retrograde graphics and computer programs emphasizes the fact that the images were generated within the limits of a certain technology.

Like the implicit contradiction in retro-futurism, Blake’s use of this kitsch aesthetic takes from the past, while at the same time plays with concepts of the new. The formal presentation and simple graphics in Angel Dust are also suggestive of Modernist painting. Form, colour and texture are primary elements, but in the digital paintings incidental recognizable forms slide past each other as windows gradually open and close to reveal layers of texture and colour. Blake offers his digital painting as the latest development in the lineage of Modernism, as he introduces computer-generated motion into its familiar language. But this attempt to invigorate a pass art with outdated technology can only come with a sense of irony.

Ultimately, Blake aligns two utopian discourses: Modernism’s lofty goal of transcending time and space and technology’s desire to master them. In joining the two, he jeers at their fetishistic struggles for innovation, and undermines their overvaluation by reducing them both to style. In a sense, Angel Dust is all about style.

Angel Dust is a part of TRANZ<—>TECH 2001: The Toronto International Video Art Biennial, occurring October 11 – 14 2001. Presented by Art Gallery of Sudbury, Artcite/House of Toast, CAM (Centre for Aboriginal Video), Charles Street Video, FADO, Gallery 44, Images, InterAccess, Mercer Union, Pleasure Dome, S.P.I.N Gallery, Trinity Square Video, V Tape, VVV, WARC, and YYZ.