![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/rsz_img_6447.jpg\" "\\"rsz_img_6447\\"")
<\/a>Installation view of\u00a0TenderPixels.CorruptedFiles<\/em>\u00a0,\u00a0<\/em>including Terms and Conditions by Fabienne Hess (in the middle).\u00a0Courtesy of Birch Contemporary<\/p>\nThe four artists in the group exhibition TenderPixels.CorruptedFiles<\/em>\u00a0at Birch Contemporary adopt the versatile pixel as both a visual and material form to express the fluidity of low-grade mass media content. Louise Noguchi\u2019s four works from the series \u201cCompilation Portraits\u201d (1995) are labour intensive, hand woven, black and white silverprint portraits. Each work contains the pixelated image of a criminal culled from mass media archives or B-rated crime novels, as well as the artist\u2019s mimetic portrait. Her high definition self-portraits (effectively pixelated by the woven pattern) serve to clarify the portraits that were otherwise so distorted, they could hardly be called menacing, and conversely, the clarified guilty portrait obscures the innocence of Noguchi as the subject.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A similar blur between guilty and innocent appears in Fabienne Hess\u2019 work \u201cTerms and Conditions (Email Notices)\u201d (2016), using instead the terms protected and complicit. “Email Notices\u201d includes the \u2018fine print\u2019, disclaimers and confidentiality notices that appear at the bottom of corporate\/public correspondence. Other works in the series use texts from contracted online agreements, web terms and conditions, and cookie notices.\u00a0The text is documented in metallic paint on a large translucent dustsheet. Most of the prose is vague and applies not to the protection of the user or their devices; instead it protects the sender and the contract itself.\u00a0 None of this work is pixelated, although the difficulty had in reading the content suggests how the law-full jargon often goes unread. The \u201cCorrupted\u201d series (2013) includes portraits resurrected from supposedly erased archives, half-overwritten with pixelated noise. The rainbow of tiny squares masking all but the foreheads of celebrities are printed on silk as a material metaphor for the slippery cracks through which unwanted images fall.<\/p>\n The works of Hess and Noguchi explore the analogue potential of pixels, while Lorna Mills uses pixels in their natural habitat: low-fi GIF files. GIF files are short loops of static images strung together, used as a tool for expression or communication on social media pages. The images used in \u201cHand Job\u201d (2014) and \u201cKnee Slapper\u201d (2014) include isolated, heavily pixelated appendages waving back and forth against white backgrounds. Their repetitive animation \u2013 hand moving to knee and away from hand \u2013 includes subtle allusions to power and gender politics, while the smooth transitions between static images becomes the central aesthetic focus of the medium. Mills\u2019 GIFs are short loops of a length standard to this digital format.<\/p>\n David Hanes\u2019 work \u201cPsycho.gif\u201d (2012-16) on the other hand, is 109 minutes long and composed of over 6000 images. Hanes\u2019 work is not only exploitative of the averagely fleeting GIF sequence; it also exploits our expectations and our attention, playing on Douglas Gordon\u2019s \u201c24 Psycho\u201d (1993). In Hanes\u2019 work (which can be streamed online with an image counter) the low-fi, pixelated format of the fully rendered 1960 Hitchcock horror film lends itself as a metaphor for the blurry truth that carries the plot forward. In addition to the webpage, a USB in the shape of a knife is also for sale containing the entire pixelated GIF file paradoxically in a high-quality version that is too large to be played. Even so, given the choice between paying for a high-quality copy and a free low-quality, over-circulated version, the hunt for the low-fi seems to win out. The USB is more of a conceptual object \u2013 the ultimate dematerialization of the image \u2013 a high quality, un-viewable copy displayed next to the easily accessible pixelated stream.<\/p>\n In Hito Steyerl\u2019s essay “In Defense of the Poor Image” (e-flux, issue 10, 2009) she describes one hierarchy of images in relation to their quality. The low-fi image is pixelated, a specter, a thumbnail, a reproduction, often compressed, overwritten and remixed in its circulation. Despite the \u2018proletariat\u2019 qualities of these images, it is our own 99% proletariat who consume and circulate them en-masse. The high-tech files remain stored on disks or un-downloadable, unseen, unconsumed and unpopular. In another hierarchy defined by the \u2018democratization\u2019 of the image (potential for circulation and viewership), the poor image is desirable. These images contain the rare and forgotten content of our digital rubbish. How can a \u2018poor\u2019 or pixelated image continue on its path to dematerialized fame if printed on paper (or silk) and hung in a gallery?<\/p>\n In addition to Hanes\u2019 “Psycho.gif”\u00a0he has also produced a series titled “Aware”\u00a0(2013-14) in which gallery documentation and installation shots are Photoshopped and rendered via dye-sublimation printing. The cultural content is void, only a suggestion of white cube is visible. Mostly these prints are a blur. The two works from this series along with the other material works will appear online in the installation shots for TenderPixels.CorruptedFiles<\/em>\u00a0in reviews and on Instagram feeds. In their digital format they will already look pixelated, primed for over-circulation, joining again the ranks from which they were copied. Pixels in this exhibition bring to life the familiar habits of prosumers who simultaneously consume and circulate.<\/p>\n<\/a>Louise Noguchi, Compilation Portrait #2, 1995,\u00a0two woven silver prints,\u00a0\u00a064″ \u00d7 43 \u00bc”. Courtesy of Birch Contemporary<\/p>\n<\/a>Fabienne Hess, Terms and Conditions (Email Notices), 2016, acrylic on dust sheet (detail), 108″ \u00d7 144″. \u00a0Photo: Alice Pelot<\/p>\n<\/a>Fabienne Hess, Bowie, 2013, Digital print on silk, 67″ \u00d7 49″.\u00a0\u00a0Courtesy of Birch Contemporary<\/p>\n<\/a>Lorna Mills, Hand Job, 2014, Animated GIF, edition of 3.\u00a0Courtesy of Birch Contemporary<\/p>\n<\/a>David Hanes, Psycho.gif, 2012-2016, animated GIF, 109 minutes. Unique whole work available on custom USB. Also available one minute segments on custom USB, each unique 1 of 109.\u00a0Courtesy of Birch Contemporary<\/p>\n<\/a>David Hanes, Psycho.gif, 2012-2016, USB. Photo: Alive Pelot<\/p>\n