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INSTALLATION VIEW: DAVID KENNEDY CUTLER. SHAD- OW MÉTIER (2020). COUR- TESY OF THE ARTIST AND HALSEY MCKAY GALLERY.
duce a gesture that I’ve seen elsewhere, I take a sudden turn
and diverge from that... I try to find something that feels unlike anything else.” His goal, nonetheless, is to explore the effect of the camera lens and the computer filter—how the digital world has influenced the way that people perceive themselves. “So much of our experience of the world now is your consciousness existing in multiple planes,” he explains, “whether it’s the screen, or reality, or fantasy, or in multiple pop-ups and windows.” Indeed, the digital experience has added irreality to our day to day, compelling us to create and project an image of ourselves over and over again, on multiple platforms. “My work stems from a place of empathy for the conditions that people are put under,” Kennedy Cutler shares. “It’s not a judgement at all. It’s more about reconciling with the truth of it.”
One is always constructing a narrative when using social me-
dia, and it could be argued that this is increasingly based upon impulses, upon cognitive response. “Truth is important,” Kenne- dy Cutler states, “but also stories are important, and an important part of making art is the story behind it, so, to some degree, I am playing a game.” Aren’t we all playing the game of social media? To post or not to post?
When asked how he knows a piece is finished, Kennedy Cutler speaks of the disquieting feeling that appears when there is still work to do. “If when I get home I feel agitated, then it’s not resolved.” In other words, the absence of peace. But also the individuality of the piece, as he does not stop until “the work feels that it’s been accumulated by its own will, without having
to be forced or coerced into that.” As for the future of his art? Will agitation continue? Subconscious layering? There’s only one thing he’s certain of: “it will definitely be weird.”
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