Ann Chwatsky’s series of pigment ink prints and mixed media is THE SKY IS FALLING.
The advent of digital technology has made it possible for us to be inundated with images wherever we go. Televisions, computers, even cell phones now bombard us with images constantly. And because we live in a world that is so mediated by images, we need to understand and interrogate what this means.
Since 9/11 much of the population has lived with fear and concern for their future. Images of destruction are paraded daily in front of our eyes. The cultural context of our lives is now changed forever by having our borders invaded. Photographers, writers and educators have responded to this change by producing work that dialogues with this concern.
By using digital technology as a tool to share our visions , fears and ideas , it has given us many new ways to show the ideas in artists’ psyches. And by combining these visions with other art forms (such as text, drawing or collage) what was once thought of as science fiction has come to be part of our daily lives.
As an artist I have responded with a series called THE SKY IS FALLING. They are large hypercolored digital images of landscapes that look benign. I then go into the landscapes with mixed media. Sometimes using text and mixed media materials such as beads, porcupine quills or duct tape, I add suggestions of the terror that lurks in our pastoral paradises. These elements are not totally visible until close inspection, seen from afar they look like pleasant landscapes.
