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Artist: Jon Malis
Artist Statement
Transliteration (n) – to represent in the characters of another alphabet
Transcolorations stems from my efforts to translate digital color science into physical forms.
Through the process of rendering a series of definitions and standards that specify how computers represent, interpret and process color data – known as International Color Consortium (ICC) Profiles – into three-dimensional space, the sculptures of Transcolorations effectively transliterate color science from bits of data into tangible forms and objects.
As 3-dimensional objects, the works give form and structure – weight, mass, volume – to the abstract notion that computers and all digital devices require external information to accurately define and reproduce specific color. Taking on formal sculptural qualities, the works balance elements of science, data, and visualization to show that color remains relative, even in the absolute binary of digital data.
Because the visible spectrum of light is not a naturally linear scale, there are color profiles and models that include imaginary colors – those that can exist computationally, but exceed what can be seen by the human eye (and reproduced by technology). In order to describe what we can never see or truly know, instead of representing the models with their colors intact, I have chosen to represent these models in bronze, representing not just the enveloping “shape” of all color, but also that there is aesthetic beauty in what cannot be physically viewed.