1st place
gold star award
Austin Irving
united states
title
HIS MINECRAFT
Irving has created a bespoke method of photographing these digitally-generated interiors with an analog medium. Using a laptop hooked up to a flat screen television, she pauses Minecraft’s on her desired composition and makes a long exposure on 4x5 color negative of the static virtual interior. This unique methodology allows Irving to craft our view of these spaces by moving her gaze between multiple medias of representation and our represental media.
While the motif of how our simulated worlds have become entwined with our analog lives rings true for the vast majority of us, HIS MINECRAFT is also a deeply intimate project. T artist's attraction to these spaces is just as much about their formal elements as the visceral reactions she has to her husband’s creative choices. From this angle, her gaze becomes a veneration of his vision and dedication to this creation, manifesting as visual love letters to the man she adores. He has created a finite world and Irving shows us the sightlines that make it infinite.
Irving is based in Los Angeles where she lives with her husband and their dog, Kodak.
back to gallery
entry description
In her series HIS MINECRAFT, Irving uses large format analog photography to explore the interiors of a private virtual world. Since its release in 2011, Minecraft is the best-selling video game of all time with over 238 million copies sold and nearly 140 million monthly active players worldwide. One of those players is the artist’s husband. He has been building a city since 2012, and unlike many users of this game, he does not play publicly or collaboratively. He describes the methodical building process as extremely therapeutic; brick by virtual brick, he has created a vast and intricate city that has effectively become both a refuge and a time capsule of the past decade of his life.Irving has created a bespoke method of photographing these digitally-generated interiors with an analog medium. Using a laptop hooked up to a flat screen television, she pauses Minecraft’s on her desired composition and makes a long exposure on 4x5 color negative of the static virtual interior. This unique methodology allows Irving to craft our view of these spaces by moving her gaze between multiple medias of representation and our represental media.
While the motif of how our simulated worlds have become entwined with our analog lives rings true for the vast majority of us, HIS MINECRAFT is also a deeply intimate project. T artist's attraction to these spaces is just as much about their formal elements as the visceral reactions she has to her husband’s creative choices. From this angle, her gaze becomes a veneration of his vision and dedication to this creation, manifesting as visual love letters to the man she adores. He has created a finite world and Irving shows us the sightlines that make it infinite.
about the photographer
Austin Irving (b 1984, NYC) is an internationally award winning visual artist who works with large format analog photography. Irving graduated cum laude with a BFA from the Department of Photography and Imaging at NYU’s TISCH School Of The Arts in 2006. Her artwork has been exhibited in galleries and museums in Hong Kong, India, Germany, Lithuania, France, and across The United States. Irving has participated in exhibitions at institutions such as MOCA, The Irvine Fine Arts Center, The Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, Virginia Tech, The International Photography Symposium, and The Katonah Museum of Art. Her work as been the recipient of the Architecture Master Prize, Aesthetica Art Prize, MonoAwards, American Photography Competition, Budapest International Foto Awards, International Photography Awards, PX3 Paris Photography Prize, Tokyo International Foto Awards, and the International Photography Competition at The New York Center for Photographic Arts. Her images have been featured in The LA Times, Wired, Slate, Architectural Digest, LA Weekly, PDN, Art Ltd., Artillery, TimeOut NY, The Herald Tribune, The Huffington Post, Frontrunner, Artsy, Voyage LA, Yatzer, and Artweek LA.Irving is based in Los Angeles where she lives with her husband and their dog, Kodak.
back to gallery