Avatar masquerade

To disguise an alternate

which decides to dissemble

from the gathering disguise

in the first place

to mask the primary mask

which becomes yet another

alternate of oneself such

as to dismantle the function

of the original self

and present as an imposter

oneself decides to mascara

one or another of which decides

then, again to disguise

***

These digitally rendered image poems are multi-disciplinary, cross genre visual/poetic objects that are modeled in a 3-D virtual environment and texture mapped using photo-collaged images and high resolution scans. This work is an ongoing, serial experiment with the interstices of how image reacts with the poetic, at all times remaining aware of the digital tache of visual perception. (Tache — “spot” or “blot” in French.)

The photographic raw material is collaged as a primary montage allowing the diverse items to dictate an intuitive course for the image. Research is done on the elements which further solidifies overall thematic direction. The attempt at this stage is to unify disparate elements mainly by manipulating color, form and texture with an eye towards processing the montage as a workable texture. At this point, 3-D imaging software is used to create a virtual three dimensional space. This “virtual” composition, with modeled forms is then texture-mapped using the original collage and additional real-world textures. The resulting digital matrix is rendered using a dimensional render engine, then brought back into the image-editing program where it is refined and color corrected, and finally printed as limited edition image matrix prints.

- Peter Ciccariello