Adam Dix
Dix’s work explores our associations between communication technology and our absorption with it. Focusing on the abundance of communication devices, his work encapsulates the allure for the user to stay in a mode of constant connectivity and how these instruments interrupt and influence our command of the world around us.
He examines the disparity between our desire to communicate and the subsequent physical isolation of others that technology can engender. This is exaggerated by appropriating similar traits found in the genres of science fiction and religion, by exploring ideas of ritual and ceremony to emphasise a sense of compliance or worship. His subjects interact with technological devices with a formalised devotion and reverie.
Dix’s paintings explore the many strata of connecting through bringing the past and present forms of communication together. Puppet (2015) depicts a communication mast appropriated as a processional effigy, which acts as a unifying event. He expresses togetherness using symbols from both past and present ideas of European folk custom, performance and festival.
Dix’s palette of muted colours and hazy imagery root each work in a time of historical optimism. He references the imagined futures of our predecessors through his use of colour, linking the subject of contemporary technology to its 1950’s origins. He applies numerous washes of ink and oil to build up the colours and imagery in each work. His process demands conscientiousness and precision, as once a colour is laid on to the surface it can’t be changed.
Adam Dix was born in 1967 and lives and works in London. Dix’s work has been featured in exhibitions including All Are Welcome, Eleven, London (2016), Yesterday's Prophets, Eleven, London (2013), The Future Can Wait, London (2011 and 2012), Fratenise – The Salon, Beaconsfield, London (2011), and Transmission, Haunch of Venison, London (2010). His work is also part of prestigious collections including the Royal Collection of Monaco and the Zabludowicz Collection, London.