Works Blending Hyperrealism with an Eerie Sublime

John Gerrard, born in Ireland in 1974, is known for creating works that incorporate virtual worlds. He holds a bachelor's degree in fine art and painting from Oxford University and a doctorate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He currently divides his time between Vienna, Australia, and Dublin, Ireland, maintaining a global practice.

Gerrard's signature works utilize "real-time 3D computer graphics," technology originally developed for military purposes and now widely employed in the gaming industry. He transforms scenes of agricultural and livestock industries in geographically isolated locations into virtual 3D imagery, based on thousands of photographs, and presents them as artworks, incorporating the passage of time and other environmental factors.

This exhibition features two works: "Sow Farm" (2009), a large-scale projection piece that gives the exhibition its title, and "Sunspot Drawing" (2012), a video display work. "Sow Farm," modeled after a real-life large-scale pig farm in the American Midwest that housed numerous sows for farrowing, shows the landscape surrounding the facility as captured by a camera slowly circling 360 degrees, operating on a 24/7 cycle.

Meanwhile, "Sunspot Drawing" is a simulation work where Gerrard himself holds a magnifying glass by hand from dawn till dusk on a road in Guantanamo, Cuba, a location also known for its political prison camp. While changing over the course of 365 days, the work guides our attention to its essence by having us follow the path of light created by the virtual sunlight.

John Gerrard's art possesses a hyperrealistic eeriness and a certain sublimity. Themes such as energy issues, politics, economics, and war are emphasized, drawing our attention to the unseen aspects of the global production networks that underpin contemporary society.