M HKA Ensembles

Photography, 125.5 x 83.5 cm.

Collection: Collection M HKA / Foundation for Visual Arts Middelburg/De Vleeshal (Inv. no. VH0286b).

Tracing what seems to be a timeline of our varied modes of communication, artist Roma Pas works in a variety of media, ranging from clay to computer software, mixing traditional materials with contemporary electronic and digital culture and breaking down new forms of media to show their underlying components. Her work illustrates how electronic representations of reality at times tend to replace the real ones, forcing metaphorical connections between them and yet also yearning for the actual.

The works react to features like inscription, ornament, ruin, archeology, wisdom and greatness and attempt to connect to the contemporary media landscape.”

“As I can see it at this point,” observes Pas, “only two things are inevitable: death and digitization. Digitization is often seen as a means of conservation and preservation—saving dusty photo archives and obscure historical materials from oblivion—whereas at the same time it’s considered to detract from truth and beauty; authenticity and purity are at stake….One wonders if every new technology or form of progress can also be seen as a form of decay…”