The exhibition Portals includes new light, video and experimental painting works by Michelle Xen.
The exhibition features an abstract fluorescent series called Portals, extending the multidisciplinary and embodied gestures in Xen’s video, performance and painting works. Created using fluorescent pigment on 100% cotton rag, the artworks have ultraviolet properties referencing the lighting effects found in music and club culture. Only selected images from the series are included; the production order assigns the numerical title of the work. Each work exists as an original artwork and a digital artefact on the Ethereum blockchain, playing directly with the immediacy of production and the permanency of the work.
The video work Seedphrase is a series remixing abstracted music videos by Xen and text. The words are selected from a list of 2048 words utilised by the original BIP39 protocol, an encryption used for early Bitcoin wallets. These randomly selected mnemonic phrases were originally composed of 12 words and referred to as a seed phrase. For this artwork, 12 words were selected by the artist based on their poetic resonance within the video.
The neon work [DISCO]MFORT bridges the lyrics and text of Xen’s previous work with her ongoing light installation practice. Paying homage to the canon of neon artists who informed her early art practice, this work signals a new exploration of the combined resonances of light and text.
