The King of the Internet by Mark Napier
About the piece: The King of the Internet
The piece is a distilled essence of Donald Trump. It represents dynamism and absolute chaos. The piece is totally random. Every time you load it, it’s something new. And as we know, Trump has random tendencies; an agent of chaos. You can’t always predict what he’s going to do. Along with this randomness, there is an element of nationalism. I find this critique on Trump thought provoking and fascinating. The forms and shapes used in the piece represent Trump’s loudness and ubiquity (i.e. the repeated hands and mouth). It is the repetition of simple things. The piece is connected to the Twitter API, displaying Trump’s tweets.
About the artist: Mark Napier
Mark is an internet artist. He’s in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Whitney permanent collections. Most of his work is from the early 90s, but he’s still an active artist today, even though he has a day job (he’s a colleague of mine at Intent who I’ve worked closely with). Mark explores interactivity, allowing the audience to create new versions of his art. His art is typically in the form of digital collages. His art evolves with user input. Fundamentally, Mark’s work explores the intersection between traditional collage and user interactivity. His art juxtaposes traditional methods of image layering and composition with algorithmic randomness and user input.