Stir Q&A: Visual artist Nicolas Sassoon talks pixellation, deep-sea myth, and the new world of crypto art
Juxtaposing old-school computer imagery, lava rocks, and watery light, he evokes the depths in Hadal Zones
Hadal Zone. Photos by Blaine Campbell
WALK BY THE window gallery at 1265 Howe Street any night between now and early June, and you’ll be drawn into a strange and hypnotic blue-glowing world.
The installation Hadal Zones, created by multimedia artist Nicolas Sassoon, features lava rocks sprouting curious LCD screens bathed in blue light. They’re set against the pixellated moiré images of tall, arched windows, printed on silk banners and appearing to ripple like water. The title alludes to the deepest trenches of our oceans and the ancient god of the underworld.
Commissioned by Malaspina Printmakers, Hadal Zones was curated and produced by its executive director Justin Muir; the banners were printed in that organization’s new space inside the building, Howe Street Studios.
Sassoon’s work expresses his interest in both old-school computer technology and architecture. He’s shown in places like the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Whitney Museum of American Art, but also seen his pieces become in-demand amid the now-booming world of crypto art.
The artist took time away from his own screen to talk to Stir about dithering algorithms, deep-sea mythology, the crypto-art craze, and more.
What intrigues you about using early computer technology for your art, and the pixelated effects it creates?
“Since childhood, my aesthetic experiences have been shaped by computer-generated imageries as much as by other imageries like photography, painting, or film. It always seemed obvious to me that computer graphics were just as significant as other mediums, in art and visual culture. In 2008, I started experimenting with early computer graphics, with the intent to learn more about their histories.
“The aesthetic I work with refers to a specific period—the late ’80s and ’90s—when home computers became mass produced and when CPUs were too weak to display images with a large amount of visual information. These technical limitations led computer engineers to design graphics made of pixellated patterns, dithering algorithms, and limited colour palettes. Looking back at this time period and aesthetic, these graphics defined an early era of home computing, but to me this visual language also resonates with many different histories: digital abstraction at large, optical and kinetic art, abstraction in painting, print-making, mosaics, videogames, animation.
“My interest in this visual language is also driven by the sculptural, material, and pictorial qualities of this imagery, by its limitations, its poetics, and by its ability to create formal and conceptual dialogues with other mediums.”
What ideas took you to the deepest realm of the ocean for Hadal Zone?
“Hadal Zones is the scientific name given to the deepest areas of the ocean floor, like the Mariana trench for example, which remain to be explored for the most part. The word Hadal refers to Hades, the god of the dead in ancient Greek Mythology. The fact that scientists would name the deepest parts of the ocean after an ancient god of death seems particularly telling of the complex relationships between mankind and the natural world. Our relationship to nature appears to be shaped both through a desire of control and an instinctive anxiety towards natural forces. For this exhibition, I wanted to create works that would evoke these tensions between nature, man-made structures and technology.
“The windows prints in the exhibition refer to relationships between nature and man-made structures. In this case, the elongated shapes of the window frames suggest structures of power, of domination towards nature. Meanwhile, the windows appear overtaken by a liquid force, in the process of being submerged, as if one would watch a gigantic wave rolling onto the glass of a window. The prints are sized to replicate life-size windows in the exhibition space, acting as floating trompe-l’oeils in the exhibition space.
“The sculptures and rocks refer to relationships between nature and technology. These works belong to an ongoing series of sculptures conceived as poetic interfaces between computer technology and natural forces. Composed of small volcanic rocks connected to LCD panels, the sculptures recall traditional viewing stones from which electronic hardware and screens emerge to form heads and figures. The LCD screens feature pixelated animations evocative of flowing liquid, suggesting a life-form or activity contained within the stones.”
In this piece digital effects combine with materials like silk and rocks. What do you like about integrating the natural and the “virtual”?
“Although my work is primarily digital, it is constantly inspired by natural forces, and I often tend to translate it through different materials. A good example of this would be my ongoing project titled PATTERNS. PATTERNS are all-over animations produced using a moiré patterning technique; consisting in the overlap of two images to generate the illusion of third image. These animations are usually named after atmospheric and natural forces, they appear on screen as endless hypnotic surfaces, evoking visual experiences reminiscent of both the natural and the digital. Sometimes, these works get translated as prints on fabric, notably for collaborations with fashion brands like UNIQLO or the Vancouver-based brand Wings&Horns. This body of work is also a starting point for the windows prints in the exhibition.”
Photo by Blaine Campbell
In the Malaspina project, we see pixelated moiré windows on silk; we've also seen tree houses on your Vancouver Live art screen downtown, and suburban homes in your crypto art. Where does architecture fit in with your practice?
“One exciting aspect of working on architectural models as an artist is that your projects don’t need to be realistic or feasible; they can be imaginary, unfinished, they can exist as sketches, studies or fantasies. Most of my projects dealing with architecture are focused on imaginary structures; buildings floating in mid-air, renderings of architectures never to be built. I see architectural forms as figures which can tell a story, or reflect on specific contexts, like the Tree Houses exhibited in Downtown Vancouver for example. Symbolically, tree houses can represent a desire to return to a form of independence, an escape from society or from an urban environment. The figure of the tree house resonates with many of our contemporary yearnings: a closer proximity with nature, a higher level of autonomy, a more essential lifestyle.
“My project Headquarters, created in 2011 in collaboration with artist and composer Sara Ludy, is also a good example. It is composed as an animated fly-through of an insular building modeled after the logo of the online collective Computers Club, founded by Krist Wood in 2008 and which I have been a member of since 2009. The animation is conceived as an anachronic and imaginary architectural proposal, subverting the form of a generic office building to construct a utopic and branded “headquarters” for the collective. Using early computer graphics, low polygon 3D models and a soundtrack by Sara Ludy, Headquarters slowly reveals an empty architecture as a virtual workspace, a potential meeting point for the collective’s members scattered across multiple locations. For 10 years, Headquarters was acting as the landing webpage of Computers Club, until Flash wasn’t supported in current web browsers. For the 10th anniversary of its release on March 23 2021, Headquarters will be released on the platform Foundation.”
Your work lends itself well to crypto art and you’ve been active selling on Super Rare. Has crypto art affected how you create art, and what’s surprised you most about that booming platform?
"Everything I create starts as a digital sketch or as an animation, therefore my transition to the NFT space has been very fluid. It’s also been overwhelming--in a good way--as my work has been very well received on both of the platforms I have joined: Foundation and SuperRare. This new field allows me to monetise artworks in their original formats, something I’ve always considered at the root of my practice. The things I appreciate the most so far in that space are the culture of redistribution of wealth (artists buying other artists works) and the support I’ve received from so many artists. I also really appreciate initiatives like the Mint Fund, a community-led project created to fund, mentor, and support artists interested in bringing their art into the world of NFTs, prioritizing BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ artists, especially outside of North America and the European Union. My next release Headquarters on March 23 will redistribute 20 percent of the sale price to the Mint Fund, a model many of the artists in the NFT space implement in their sales./
"I’d like to thank a few people who have been supportive and instrumental to my success in this space: Kayvon Tehranian, Zack Yanger, Lindsay Howard, Sara Ludy, Aksel, Tyson Parks, Glowa, my gallerist Wil Aballe and all my collectors. I want to particularly thank my partner Kerry Doran for her invaluable advice, knowledge, support and expertise in shaping our small collection of NFTs from incredible artists such as Alima Lee, Itzel Yard and Suren Seneviratne. Finally, a big thank you to Malaspina Printmakers curator Justin Muir for inviting me to create the exhibition Hadal Zones, and for making the process of this exhibition such an enjoyable one!"
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