Maximus Clarke's RENDER @ the 2015 Governors Island Art Fair

Almost every facet of our existence is now subject to government and corporate surveillance and data mining systems. To them, we exist only as sets of quantified information — not as living beings. Maximus Clarke’s RENDER, on view now at the 8th Annual Governors Island Art Fair, is a depiction of human personhood under the reifying gaze of this new panopticon.

RENDER consists of a large wood and fabric installation, constructed and painted to resemble a set of concrete walls. On each of the 3 screens built into the vault-like structure, images of a woman and a man are rear-projected in stereoscopic 3D. When viewed with vintage-style red/cyan anaglyph glasses, the figures, photographed from 16 different angles, seem to rotate endlessly inside the structure, under the gaze of an omniscient surveillance apparatus. As they revolve, metallic glyphs and abstracts of personal data are projected onto the screens next to them.

Over an audio track of collaged voices and electronic sounds, the figures gradually lose their depth and are rendered into flat, pixelated grids of pure information. Finally, they dissolve into nothingness, as the data becomes the primary reality, and the people from whom it has been extracted disappear. We are left with a question: Can the private self endure in this new age, or are we all mere ghosts in the machine?

RENDER is one of six installations selected by the Governors Island Art Fair for a first-ever
exhibition of multimedia works inside the underground stone chambers of historic Fort Jay. The exhibition at the fort is open from 10.30am to 5pm, every Saturday and Sunday in September. Governors Island is accessible on weekends from both Manhattan and Brooklyn via ferry.

The artist gratefully acknowledges the support of of the Center for the Holographic Arts, where RENDER was developed during a summer 2015 residency.

MORE INFORMATION

> Governors Island ferry schedule: https://govisland.com/info/ferry-schedule
> Governors Island Art Fair: http://4heads.org
> Center for the Holographic Arts: http://holocenter.org
> Artist site: http://maximusclarke.com