#izzyliberti

I am featuring Izzy’s THE SIXTH EXTINCTION, in this post and the following post.  Her work is postdigital in two ways, in this piece she uses animation plus a lasercut woodblock. Make sure to check out all her other work using the links provided.

The Sixth Extinction Woodcut (7.5”x11”) This woodcut was accomplished by editing together photos I took of apartment buildings in Manhattan and drawings from my sketchbook, and then by using a laser cutter to carve the surface of the block. It stands as more or less an experiment in laser cutting that went pretty well, the medium of a photographic woodcut yet another frontier granted to us from technological advancement. It’s creation marked the beginning of a theme that would take me through two more projects.

Statement:

My work, as someone working with both printmaking and animation, searches to reconcile my love for two mediums that wouldn’t seem to work well together upon a first glance. Animation, the illusion of moving images which are viewed as a time- based sequence and not on their own, and printmaking, which usually involves one stand-alone image built up though complex processes and layers, are a daunting combination. The key for me in my search to combine the two lies in taking advantage of what the mediums have to offer inherently– reproducibility in print allows for me to draw animation into background images that remain the same, as well as textural richness that gets lost in computer-generated work. Meanwhile, film offers a language of compositions and logic that I can use in my print work to offer a more cinematic quality to 2D pieces.

The irony of being a “digital native” pining after analog mediums doesn’t get lost on me, it’s something I consider whenever I create a project whose complexity arises from the trials of physical media, which a lot of people see as an unnecessary struggle in this century. My defense is probably one you know, that analog media will never be translated perfectly into digital media, that you always lose something, and that you miss it. There’s also a healthy dose of paranoia about the idea of digital media not physically existing anywhere, which is something I probably won’t ever forgive.

I don’t want to be a reactionary, nor do I want to succumb to the styles and qualities that computer-generated images offer up. I think there’s a way for print to be incorporated into new, time-based media, without sacrificing any of its poise. - Izzy Liberti

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