Swipe Swipe Swipe explores and problematizes the invisible abstraction of contract law that exists between the movement of human fingers and the backlit glass of the smartphone screen.

Installation view at Digital Distress at Signal-Center for Contemporary Art, Malmö, Sweden

Swipe
2017, Fired clay, rose gold paint
Installation view at Digital Distress at Signal-Center for Contemporary Art, Malmö, Sweden

Swipe Swipe Swipe explores and problematizes the invisible abstraction of contract law that exists between the movement of human fingers and the backlit glass of the smartphone screen.

The copyrighted, choreographed gestures of the “swipe,” “slide to unlock,” and “pinch-to-zoom” are performed by millions each day and are owned by Apple, Inc. A series of clay smartphones are imprinted with indexical “portraits” of these ephemeral and often unconsciously executed touch-screen gestures and reclaimed by the human hand in the process. Fingers to digits, silicone to clay.

The series of smartphone sculptures are installed on a wall painted Rose Gold – a color invented in the nineteenth century by Carl Faberge as a new a new chromatic alloy of gold and copper. In 2015 Apple released the Rose Gold version of the iPhone and consequently the color was named one of the top trends of 2016 by Pantone. Today Rose Gold is routinely referred to as the “millennial pink” or “Russian gold.”