White Lupine, 2019
Ink and acrylic on canvas
40 x 30 cm
One of several paintings exploring nature in video game worlds. The work was originally produced for Bit Rot, a solo exhibition by Bob Bicknell-Knight at Broadway Studio + Gallery, Letchworth, UK, 27th February – 26th April 2020.
Bit Rot, also known as bit decay, data rot and data decay, is the slow deterioration in the performance and integrity of data stored on storage media. The process occurs overs many years, due to imperfect insulation on flash drives, floppy disks losing their magnetic orientation and by storing CDs and DVDs in warm, humid environments, causing them to physically and visually rot.
In Bit Rot, Bicknell-Knight exhibits new paintings, sculptures and videos, depicting relics from the past and the present, set in a near future where nature has overwhelmed various forms of technology in a world not dissimilar to our own. The paintings and video works utilise imagery and footage taken from the video game Horizon Zero Dawn.
The 2017 game follows Aloy, a hunter in the year 3040, who inhabits a future Earth that has limited access to technology and has become overrun by animal like machines controlled by a rogue artificial intelligence. The works began with Bicknell-Knight wandering through this virtual world, using in game photography techniques to document the degradation of technology and modern life in a number of different in game environments. The in-game objects have become monuments to virtual users who would have previously inhabited them within the digital space. The cars, buildings and roads in the paintings and videos are relics from a future world, with these elements frozen in time and space due to unknown interventions.
Another series of paintings in the show feature individual flower varieties, captured at different times of day within the in-game world.
The paintings are hybrid works, beginning as in-game photographs before being digitally edited. The images are then printed onto canvas, stretched and painted onto with acrylic paint, with the offline artist’s hand interacting with the original digital image. The sides are colour matched, and the front of the canvas is partially painted onto.
White Lupine has been included in the following exhibitions:
– Bit Rot, curated by Kristian Day. At Broadway Gallery, Letchworth, UK, 27th February – 26th April 2020.
BOB BICKNELL-KNIGHT 