Miren Rodrigo Pildain 

Editor: This is "Miren Rodrigo Pildain" by Yuschav Arly, and it looks like it is a digital painting. The geometric shapes around her create an interesting, almost pixelated, atmosphere. How do you interpret this portrait? Curator: Well, immediately the geometric shapes read as very digitally native. But what’s interesting to me is the use of classic portraiture in a clearly postmodern image. These Tetris-like blocks are overlaid and, in essence, dissecting a traditionally rendered face. The digital overlay becomes an interesting parallel to modern identity; do these shapes represent the fractured and multi-layered identities we curate online? Editor: That’s a great point about the dissected identity! It’s almost like the digital world is imposing itself onto this very classically rendered figure. Do you see any other tensions or contrasts in the work? Curator: Absolutely, there is a deliberate anachronism here – something old meeting something new. Note the color choices too, and what feelings the artist evokes, using what is essentially a very simple, very elementary visual language. Almost child-like. Why do you think Arly is placing an almost Renaissance-era subject within the kind of gaming and coding visuals that are typically reserved for children? Editor: Maybe it’s about how these supposedly simple, child-like digital tools are now integral to our sense of self, and that connection affects all ages. I think I am starting to see the symbolic weight in the retro design combined with modernism here! Curator: Precisely! I am glad we explored those historical threads. It allows us to unpack the cultural assumptions that we automatically bring to this image.