John Gerrard

High-tech computer as paintbrush and canvas

John Gerrard was born on 20th July 1974. During his studies at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at the University of Oxford, he experimented with 3D scanners to create sculptural works. He continued these experiments in Chicago and Dublin and was finally able to present his first three-dimensional computer compositions calculated in real time at the Ars Electronica in Linz. John Gerrard remained true to this style in the following years, utilising the highest possible technical achievements of man to get to the root of man himself and his society by artistic means. It seems subtly ironic that the elaborate 3D routines he uses for his artworks were originally developed for the US military and its war simulations. The video game industry, one of the biggest business sectors of the 21st century, has adopted this technology and turned it into billions in revenue - but John Gerrard's approach is completely new, translating war and commerce into art.

The tedious search for the right puzzle pieces

When John Gerrard lets the computer do the work, it could be misunderstood as a simple and quick process, a programmed automatism in which the artist only needs to press a button or two. The reality, however, is different: John Gerrard's art is incredibly time-consuming, comparable to making a film, except that here one man alone is usually responsible for all the steps. Extensive research is the starting point: before even a single ‘bit’ is calculated, the artist has to go on the search. Images, structures, objects - a project often consists of thousands of elements, photographic documentation of surfaces, details and environments, which Gerrard painstakingly assembles and models on the computer, comparable to the work of an analogue sculptor.

No stasis, but simulated life

John Gerrard does not develop his artworks arbitrarily, but in line with the conditions and requirements of the real, analogue world. The digital as a mirror of the analogue, as in his work Western Flag (Spindletop, Texas), depicting a flag made of endlessly billowing black smoke - it was perhaps once the national symbol of America, showing the proud Stars and Stripes, but there is no sign of it here. Instead, the viewer sees an allusion to a dried-up oil well in Texas, a ghostly image that radiates a strange sense of unease. Is it a sense of the fading greatness of a world power torn apart? Gerrard's works are not prefabricated films or animated images, they are fully-fledged computer simulations that take into account the seasons and lighting conditions and change in line with natural conditions. Change is intrinsic to Gerrard's art; the work does not remain the same, but evolves - in the case of the Smoke Tree series, the trees depicted are simulated so realistically that they gradually lose their life. In 300 years' time, one of the pictures will show a fallen tree - the verification of this assertion and the final judgement on John Gerrard's art will therefore fall to a future generation.

John Gerrard lives and works today in Dublin and Vienna.