Art Uncovered -- Justin Berry
Justin Berry‘s exhibition Fissure and Facture at Interstate Projects is a collection of two different kinds of landscapes, both of them fictional. The first body of work consists of photographs taken inside war-themed video games. Much like the way landscape photographers like Ansel Adams explored their surroundings in search of poetic scenes, Justin navigates the world of first person shooters using the screen has his camera. At first, glance these virtual landscapes look just like black and white photos. It’s only when you start to look closely and notice a pixel here, or a gun lying behind a rock, that the fiction becomes clear.
For the second body of work in the show, Justin scanned the brightly illustrated covers of paperback fantasy novels, ones that often depict the book’s characters among pristine, picturesque landscapes. Justin then digitally removed all the text and figures from these images, leaving only the landscape. Without text and characters for context, these scenes of sunsets, beaches and moonlit forests seem strangely real, like postcards from another world.
Recently, I met Justin at Interstate Projects to find out more about Fissure and Facture. The exhibition is on view until June 30th.
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