Michaela Putz - Extinction Ballads

"Extinction Ballads Pt.1: Floral Opulence" is a series of digital photographic works containing found footage of recently extinct or endangered plants. Images and videos of these species act as the last contemporary documents of what will soon have been. These were collected online by the artist, photographed from the screen, manipulated after further digitisation with the Smudge Tool and partially transformed back into 3D models. The baroque-looking digital works show fingerprints on screens, pixels and technical artefacts - as an indication of human influence on endangered species. 

"Can something that is lost continue to exist digitally? Michaela Putz explores this question in her works. The digital works contain found footage of recently extinct or endangered plants. Michaela Putz translates the evidence of former diversity into a transfiguring baroque aesthetic, interrupted only by the smudgy traces of the often irrelevant scrolling we find on our tablets and smartphones. In the work, the artist refers to a strikingly invasive-destructive element of human action as well as to the increasingly evident futility of fleeting "gestures"." (From an exhibition text by Esther Mlenek)
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