Murray McKeich

Murray McKeich's signature synthetic aesthetic, a meeting point between the natural and manufactured both in terms of content and process is featured in both print (dvn, 2005) and video (Maddern Square, 2006) in this exhibition. Rotten discarded waste and stubborn weeds, the detritus of modern life, metamorphose via complex generative software into a multitude of unique visual variations that are disarmingly seductive. As McKeich digitally scans his subject material to form an extensive image bank from which the program randomly curates, his influence on the process is both imperative and redundant and raises interesting questions around the notion of artist as agent. The video work mutates and evolves, shifting and dwelling on strange transformations and configurations in a mesmeric visual poetry. However, like the ominous lesson of Frankenstein's monster or the unsettling implications of artificial intelligence, the subtle layering of the man-made and organic belies quietly dark results.