My work addresses issues of mortality and human frailty through the use of surrogate forms. Our bodies are tender sacks of warm liquid—ridiculously fragile and impermanent.  Acknowledging this fact is frightening, yet frailty of the human body is something that we all share across varying cultures and time periods.  My goal as an artist is to bring to the surface this paradox in order to encourage human connection.

I use surrogate forms as a result of the nature of new media and the way I chose to design my surrogates has been inspired as a result of my research on Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori’s theory of the Uncanny Valley.  He states that something that merely suggests something human can be more effective than that which comes eerily close to resembling something human.

My major artistic influence is the transitory tomb, a crypt originally used in late 14th century Northern Europe, which represents a true horrific representation of death and also a glorified representation of the same person.  It is a successful combination of the do’s and don’ts found in the Uncanny Valley theory.

As an interdisciplinary media artist, I am always seeking to expand my practice.  I apply my concept to various media and make that medium work for me.  Some artists explore many concepts within one medium and I explore various media with one concept—the transitory and paradoxical nature of human existence.

-Valerie Guinn-