eronrauch

I don't know, honestly, this has been an artistic issue I can't quite wrap my brain-meats around... These totally overloaded and nigh-chaotic images of MMORPGs in full swing, with the interface left on as well the text, etc. are utterly fascinating to me. The really, in some ways, are astounding documents of the sheer visual data that we, in contemporary society, subject our selves to for pleasure (Philip K. Dick anyone?), but yet, I can't quite figure out what do with them artistically. As a lawyer at the recent "Culture of Virtual Worlds" conference mentioned, the law applies differently in the space of games (think how few or no prosecutions arise from thrown elbows and injuries from tackles that happen on the court or field) but does that mean that the art world may function very differently when it comes to the space of games? After all, Duchamp supposedly gave up making art to play chess, since it was superior to painting... yet continued to make art but not show it as contemporary scholarship has shown again again despite the massive mythology around his work in the dada scene... Part of me just wants to make a large, gorgeous print of the following image and tell the photo/art world to rot! But I'm very confused...



"Suicidal Tendencies Raids Karazhan"
Inkjet Print, 2008

These four pieces are from a project loosely called "Jenny's Archive" which are small-ish works, around 12" x 20" that are collages/decollages of the fold-out posters in japanese-language anime magazines such as Animage, Newtype, and Megami.















These four are examples from what will eventually be a project that uses every single fold-out-poster from the archive of old anime magazines that were gifted to by Jenny [who often gives me curious media to turn into art] so she didn't have to move them.

Currently, these works consist of layers of fractured/torn posters, both collaged and picked back out, that reveal multiple layers of similar anime genre pin-up images. My organization process is based on the conventions of these posters. That is, one woman in the middle of the [vertical] poster. Two women posing together [horizontal]. Three women from the knees up. Etc. You may notice I said "women" - in two full boxes, there were enough posters with males in them to form a grand total of one, yet-un-produced, image...

The idea was born partially be a critique I had of the increasingly symbolic & mythological nature of Takeshi Murakami's recent larger [ever-larger] paintings. While I'm not opposed to some psuedo-mythological themes, I feel as though the works have started to be so grandiose and self-referential that they have almost ceased any critical dialog with the materiality/object-ness of otaku culture. That is, that I'm fascinated about how while we "read into" the symbols, the images and icons that make up the fetishes of otaku culture are transmitted though ephemeral, often junky, objects as well. These works are partially an attempt to emphasize what I've known and observed asthe tangible/physical nature of otaku culture, not just the textual nature of the subcultural symbols. It's a weird concrete poetry made of VHS tapes and flimsy, glossy paper, and push pins.

Spring cleaning for me is always a special time. Not only is cleaning one of the things that I do to sooth an oft-frazzled mind (with a decent beer, like Oaked Arrogant Bastard), but it also involves digging through all of my menagerie of collected proposed collage/art materials. While much of the work I've shown on this blog has been photographic, a large part of my art practice involves collage or found materials that are manipulated or re-contextualized. I find that playing with the poetics of objects is a great way to think about whatever topic is interesting me, even if I find my success rate to be significantly lower than usual with these projects. Though I'll be presenting some of the spring projects in small groups, Mel did point out, after staring at many of these hung in our work-in-progress gallery in our hall, that they might only really make sense as a big heterogeneous body. I guess the old joke about my work being something like a "one-man schizophrenic group show" holds true, even if I prefer the more dignified description of my work as being more like a sprawling research essay with many branching, converging and even contradicting ideas that explore a theme.

Hiya! I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who came out to support my show "Leveling" this past Friday. It was a great deal of fun to hang out, drink some beer and learn that an awfully large number of people, even in the pretentious art world, are addicted to WoW. There was a touch of vertigo involved in trying to whip my brain between discussing proper gem-slotting on beginning raid warlocks speced affliction and theorizing on the visual implications of realism's lineage in virtual social spaces. Here are a few shots that I snapped while I was milling and geeking and arting.

Hi all! I just wanted to extend an invitation to come out and see my most recent show that is up in Los Angeles. "Leveling" is a show that is comprised of three new bodies of work that explore the intersection of MMORPG's (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games), specifically World of Warcraft and the history of photography.

Come visit the show 10AM-5PM on weekdays at:

eastside studios
4626 HOLLYWOOD BLVD. LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90027

Fear not if you think you missed the opening, there wasn't one. Instead there will be a closing reception *Friday, February 1st, 8-10PM* with plenty of free booze!(Also of interest is that a vintage photography gallery has opened next door, and Waco is across the street, so come see all three shows!)

Eron Rauch, "Glitch #2 (Tower of Westfall)," Archival Inkjet Print, 40" x 30"

The project that gives the show it's name-sake is "Leveling 1-70, (Currently 36)," which is a large installation of photographs in a grid. As I play the game I am taking a photograph of every player-character corpse I come across. These images preserve every corpse of a fellow player that has tried to take on too many brigands, fallen to far, stumbled into ambush by much higher level monsters, or didn't quite have the game's tactics figured out.

The second set it is a trio of large color prints that are actual glitches that I have experienced in the game world. The satori moment of the glitch, owing to it's shattering of the facade of realism, can to me be more awe-inspiring or humorous than the most spectacular magic spell or wittiest dialog. Though the images seem abstract they are also a reminder the most concrete material forces of programming and geometry that produce the game's forms.

The third body of work, called "Travels," is a series of landscapes that are shot during my adventures in the frontiers of WoW, much like the landscapes of Timothy O'Sullivan or William Henry Jackson who photographically explored the American West in the later decades of the 1800's. These photographers searched for meaning, both artistic and social, in the dramatic terrain. In a similar way, these images are an attempt to explore the strained relationship with how we as a society imagine our conflicting ideas of landscape. To both preserve and change, to fear and wonder. So too, "Travels" is a personal exploration of my confusion and anxiety about the role of the artist in our constructed world.

PS: If you would like to see more of my work, feel free to go to my website, www.eronrauch.com.