What always amazes me in digital art is the richness in variation of mixed media formats that artists use to bring striking imagery to the world. For pioneer and dark pop surrealist John Leigh, better known as Karborn, that process of going through different physical and digital steps feels very much essential to his art. This piece, named The Alleys Of Your Mind, is a perfect example, a digital analogue hybrid of pixel painting and pointillism, listed by the artist as drawn directly onto machines. Individual frames have been decayed through analogue monitors and ruff kit, after which they were photographed and finally assembled into a 4 frame stop-motion gif animation. This inventiveness and cross medial wizardry have always been the hallmark of Karborn’s often deceptively minimal and deeply moving pieces.
This one is rooted in the exploration and re-invention of legendary designer Saul Bass’s work, specifically his Psychology Series. With this piece, Bass’s graphic genius is literary given a new life and extra layered context, going further in its symbolic journey of an in depth exploration of mind and memory. With its solitary figures spread out over a glittering mindscape, we can image memories being constantly stored and rewritten in our biological hard drives, with us as lonely navigators trying to manage the vastness of our own internal worlds. We are beings made of memories after all, which form and shape us more than anything. You can explore more of Karborn’s dreamlike mixed media marvels on his various platforms, I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. John was also kind enough to provide us with some behind the scenes, which are shared with this post.
