Using the hyperreal qualities generated by simulation and video-game
technologies, John Gerrard challenges the viewer with portraits of
beautiful environments imbued with an unnerving serenity and sense
that what we are seeing is perhaps too real, too slick. Gerrard creates
these portraits or environments in three dimensions, forming a point
at which sculpture and photography conflate, ceasing to exist as inert
forms but rather instilled with the potential to change or adapt,
mirroring that plasticity found in nature.
In ‘Dust Storm’ (Manter, Kansas), a dry desert environment is subjected
to a randomly unfolding virtual storm, a perpetual dark, dust-laden
tempest. Having seen a single archival photograph of this storm (the
infamous Black Sunday Dust Bowl storm of 1935), Gerrard set about
recreating this event by travelling to Texas and Kansas where he
recorded the area with photographs and video and later enhanced his
documentation with publicly accessible satellite and topographical data.