#Portal
Zara Worth (GB)
#Portal consists of sculptural and pictorial elements comprising two large, gilded polyethylene sheets draped over a frame-like structure. The sculptural element is the golden frames, which are reminiscent of archways, while the pictorial component consists of gilded polyethylene sheets. These semi-transparent, diaphanous paintings hang like veils over the gates.
Both the sculptural and pictorial elements blend forms and imagery from religious icons, selfie-filters and smartphones. The design of the frames echoes the bezel of an iPhone as well as the archways that frame depictions of miracles in a Russian Orthodox icon. In the gilded paintings hand gestures, haloes and decorative features mix with augmented reality adornments from selfie filters.
By combining sacred and profane images #Portal alludes to the promises of proximity offered religious icons and handheld, networked devices: Proximity to the divine and proximity to people, places and events geographically and/or temporally absent. The forms and features appropriated from icons, smartphones and social media orbit around intangible bodies which are conveyed to us as painted respectively digital faces – mirages, representations, recognizable but not real.
Zara Worth (* 1990) is an artist and researcher living and working in Northern England. Exploring the behaviors and cultures associated with hand-held technology and social media, Worth’s practice spans from object-making, gilding, drawing, performance to video and digital collage. Motifs, language and gestures from social media content and orthodox Christian iconography are cited in her works, drawing unexpected connections between the two in order to revise assessment of the former’s cultural significance. Worth was shortlisted for the Woon Prize (2013) and the DepARTure Foundation Art Prize (2012), her work has been shown in exhibitions at The Newbridge Project (Gateshead), Victoria Gardens (Leeds), FACT (Liverpool), The X-Gallery (Liverpool), The CUBE (London), The Tetley (Leeds), Vane (Newcastle upon Tyne), Lewisham Art House (London), Omni-Modern (USA) and St Margaret’s House (Edinburgh). She has also received grants and awards for her work from Arts Council England, Helix Arts and Ede and Ravenscroft.