Emma Stern's work deploys her formal background in traditional oil-on-canvas painting to achieve a kind of contemporary portraiture made possible by 3d software. Using tools intended for game developers to create virtual female models that serve as her subjects, her work emphasizes and exacerbates the apparent inclination towards pornographic (or at least porn-adjacent) representations of women in 3d communities and gaming culture. Persistent themes include subversion, perversion, fantasy, and a unique kind of off-brand feminism vaguely reminiscent of pop-up ads of the "You Won't Last 5 Minutes in This Game” variety.
#Retouched explores the disparate meanings of touch and the act of something being retouched. Touching a person’s body can be comforting, empathetic and a form of connection; however, it can also be unwelcoming, forceful, and demeaning. Retouching is a technique that makes alterations to an image, eliminating an imperfection and implying that an improvement has been made. We have the ability to change ourselves and our environments in the physical and digital spaces, but who are we ameliorating for? Using AI powered or synthetic intelligence to use different techniques such as clone stamping, zoom quilting, liquifying, photo compositing, and digital matte painting, the artworks use a hybridization of recognizable signs, pop culture symbols, and androgynous figures that shift between the familiar and uncanny, the primordial and the
futurist, nostalgia and hope.
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#Retouched was organized in partnership with CADAF.
