Hypercombines

Primary author: Joe Hedges

Primary college/unit: Arts and Sciences
Campus: Pullman

Abstract:

Artists have long experimented by combining a two or more media to create new forms, such as combining moving pictures and sound to create film. This experimentation is sometimes called intermedia. In the contemporary art gallery, the “combine” is part sculpture and part painting. I have created and exhibited a new body of innovative intermedia art works that combine oil painting and new media objects such as flatscreen televisions and tablets. These “Hypercombines” engage two fields that are frequently presented as separate: oil painting and new media art. By combining a distinctive painting ability with a contemplative but playful approach to new media art, these works obfuscate the physical and conceptual boundaries between media to make comments on specific challenges of the digital age. In 2019 and 2020, Hypercombines were exhibited in San Antonio, TX, Pullman, WA, Loveland, CO, Spokane, WA, and Portland, OR, exposing the pieces to several distinct audiences.