Victor Seaward

Victor Seaward blends the old and the new from history, juxtaposing ancient cultural artifacts with hyper-engineered ones. The insidious authenticity of the fabricated objects is comparable to Deepfakes - eerily realistic looking Trompe-l’oeil objects that have been designed or distorted by artificial intelligence techniques. In a way they are physical manifestations of raw data - a convincing simulacrum of a series of 0s and 1s.

After studying painting at the Royal College of Art, UK, where he always had a particular focus on wall based sculpture, he began constructing framing devices in the form of vitrines and shelves on which those items are carefully curated.

The meaning of the real or reproduced objects is questioned. The depiction of inanimate objects is taken to extremes by adding additional symbols of transience. The vanitas theme is spun further here and not only illustrates a conflict between the Middle Ages and modernity, but also between the present and the future and shows the dichotomy between human humility and human self-confidence.