Infiltrate

The lightbox image “Infiltrate” portrays the four members of VNS Matrix as a wonderful virus emerging from the Australian desert. This VNS Matrix self-portrait is in a sense satirical, using the masculinist trope of the hero to represent the brave new girls of the twenty-first century. Male computer artists such as Complesso Plastico had appropriated this kind of hero-posing in the 1990s, and in Silicon Valley, the techno-utopians were looking outwards to an awesomely bright techno-future (see the “microserfs” cover of Wired Magazine January 1994). The portraits of Julianne, Francesca, Josephine and Virginia were shot on black and white film and developed and printed in Josephine’s home darkroom.

The background image was a photograph of the Breakaways ranges in outback South Australia where the movie Mad Max 2 was shot. The photographs were scanned and manipulated in Photoshop software back when there was only one level of the undo function.

The Infiltrate lightbox piece was shown as part of the All New Gen installation in various exhibitions and venues as well as a stand alone artwork in several group exhibitions.