If you always wanted to see a dialogue box or a Google homepage painted on canvas, Dan Proops is your artistic dream come true. The British painter goes against the grain by not only copying Windows Vista icons but by also commenting on censorship laws.
Digital Journal — Dan Proops calls Borat one of his influences. He borrows iconic imagery from the video game Pong and Windows Vista. His provocative painting Velazquez, Censored pixellates the crotch area of Jesus on the cross.
As a visual artist, Proops isn’t fond of playing by the rules. Working out of London, England, the 36-year-old artist blends old and new media to give viewers a refreshing outlook on our relationship with technology. Proops uses oil on canvas but his subject matter is far from standard: Dan’s Flag is based on the famous work by Jasper Johns, but instead of the patriotic stars and stripes, he uses a PC’s scrolling bars and folder icons. And in 76% Complete, he riffs on the file download process by portraying the familiar dialogue box and slyly writing, “Painting downloading, please wait.”
His work has been featured in 25 shows since he was 14, so Proops is no stranger to attention. Recently, his collection of “desktop art” was displayed at London’s Empire Gallery, and Sam’s Desktop III moved beyond the role of our society’s dependence on technology to also comment on censorship.
He reworked Velazquez’ 1632 Christ on the Cross to add a pixellated fuzziness to Christ’s crotch, creating a shocking new image that is more than just an attention-grabber. He is censoring an area that doesn’t need to be censored, providing social commentary on overzealous governments that want to shield our eyes from harmless art.
Proops is fascinated by Windows Vista imagery from which he draws inspiration. He borrows desktop icons to create his own take on society’s hunger for technological advances. He has been quoted as saying Bill Gates is the greatest artist of the 21st century.
“I love the way Windows has been designed,” Proops said in an interview with DigitalJournal.com, “and how that design has evolved over time with the improvements in the technological vehicles that carry it.”
With Sam’s Desktop III, Proops wants admirers to think differently about their outlook on creative technology. He said, “I hope people can begin to grasp how much the GUI is influenced by fine art and design.”
He tends to focus on Web tools and ideas because he believes the Internet is the biggest cultural contribution to our society. “I feel the best art comments on what is going on now and I have always felt it important to discuss current topics and ideas.”
As a way to provoke discussion, Proops journeys into controversial territory. He pixellates the face of the British Queen fitted in a Windows screen, telling us how foolish it would be to even consider censoring such a benign person. The censored area is the modern fig leaf, Proops like to say, often shielding us from something intriguing.
There is a sense of playfulness in Proop’s work that goes beyond social commentary. Look at his artwork focusing on the video game Pong, which is almost a surreal viewing experience: seeing video game imagery on canvas harkens back to a nostalgic era, made all the more vivid by his own version of a tweaked Pong screenshot.
You wouldn’t think painting a Google home page would be astounding in any way, but Proops defies expectations by giving us a perfect rendering of the Google UK homepage. Portraying one of the most recognizable symbols of modern culture is not lost on the viewer who understands the importance Google has had on every aspect of our digital lifestyles. Proops wants to blend his old-school art form of oil-on-canvas with the iconic technology of Google’s influence, reinforcing his role as one of this era’s most engaging art provocateurs.
For more images from Sam’s Desktop III, click here.
