Auriea Harvey (1971, USA) is a digital artist and sculptor, with a diverse mixed-media practice. Harvey has a background and extensive experience in net art and video games, wherein she’d create holistic experiences. She now brings these characteristics back into her individual artistic practice. Harvey combines sculpture, simulation, drawings and often, diptychs, unifying relics with emergent technology. These diptychs create both a physical and digital interpretation or counterpart of the work. By doing so, Harvey explores the relation between digital processes and traditional sculpting methods. Her works are in dialogue with the ancient past, bringing light to dark ages. Even though Harvey’s fascination with the lore of our world is difficult to conceptualize, Harvey shows us how the digital can both construct and deconstruct layers of reality.
For this show, she brings in another diptych. Mirror v1-dv1 (Minoriea, canceled) reflects Minoriea on-screen, a character whom Harvey considers her digital avatar. The question raised by a virtual reflection is what it reflects, if not the “real”, or physical world? Within the virtual world, any type of world can be created, viewed and experienced.
With buried grave goods, mirrors were covered and removed, in an effort to keep spirits from escaping. Within this work, the reflection of Harvey’s avatar functions in a similar way, to keep her inside Harvey’s world of creation. On the large touchscreen, you may see your reflection layered over Minoriea and as you spin the mirror, her reflection becomes yours. This also makes visible a different, textured, mirror, thar shields Minoriea’s reflection to gain control over yours.
Mirror v1-dv1 (2023) is paired with Minomirror I (2023), which depicts the same character in a new guise. Within the bronze mirror, the reflection is warped. The back of the mirror shows an unsolvable labyrinth, which functions, again, as a way of canceling the mirror. The viewer can’t get to the center of one's own reflection.