Thomas Ruff: jpegs

Like his nudes (1999– ) and Substrate (Substratum) (2001– ) series, Ruff found the source material for the jpegs on the internet. In a virtual equivalent to his collection of newspaper cuttings started in the early 1980s, he created an archive of digital images based on broad, loosely defined categories, including catastrophes created by humankind, catastrophes created by nature, nature conquering human-made creations, and idylls.

 

Using digital techniques, he altered the selected images by changing their structure, often increasing their compression, lowering the pixel-per-centimeter ratio, and adding color. The resulting, large-format prints appear overtly pixelated and at times almost abstract. Ranging from landscapes and cityscapes to rocketships and the burning Twin Towers in New York, the motifs are visually diverse, as if taken from an encyclopaedia. Reflecting the cursory nature in which photographs are typically encountered online, the distorted subjects barely convey the information they were intended to, and rather become formal, aesthetic objects. The overt pixelation adds a painterly component to the works, which is further complemented by the large size of the prints, traditionally associated with nineteenth-century history paintings rather than photographs. Neither factual nor fictive, the compositions are testaments to narratives easily lost in the information overflow of mass media society.

A photograph by Thomas Ruff, titled jpeg mo01, dated 2009.

Thomas Ruff

jpeg mo01, 2009
Chromogenic print with Diasec
97 1/4 x 72 7/8 inches (247 x 185.1 cm)
A photograph by Thomas Ruff, titled jpeg ea01, dated 2007.

Thomas Ruff

jpeg ea01, 2007
Chromogenic print with Diasec
98 3/8 x 72 3/4 inches (249.9 x 184.8 cm)
A chromogenic print with Diasec by Thomas Ruff, titled jpeg ib02, dated 2007.

Thomas Ruff

jpeg ib02, 2007
Chromogenic print with Diasec
94 1/2 x 72 7/8 inches (240 x 185.1 cm)
A chromogenic print with Diasec by Thomas Ruff, titled jpeg icbm04, dated 2007.

Thomas Ruff

jpeg icbm04, 2007
Chromogenic print with Diasec
95 3/4 x 72 3/4 inches (243.2 x 184.8 cm)
A Chromogenic print with Diasec by Thomas Ruff, titled jpeg td02, dated 2006.

Thomas Ruff

jpeg td02, 2006
Chromogenic print with Diasec
102.76 x 74.02 inches (261 x 188 cm)
A chromogenic print with Diasec by Thomas Ruff, titled jpeg ny06, dated 2005.

Thomas Ruff

jpeg ny06, 2005
Chromogenic print with Diasec
109 7/8 x 74 inches (279 x 188 cm)

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