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Artist Margo Wolowiec Turns Digital Errors Into Colorful Textiles

Artist Margo Wolowiec turns digital errors into Fashion Week-ready apparel.

White Light, 2014, Handwoven polyester, cotton, dye sublimation ink. Image Credit: Highlight Gallery

When virtual glitch is taken from the digital realm into the physical world, mind-bending art often follows. Matthew Plummer-Fernandez has done it with 3D-printed sculptures, while Andy Denzler has pulled it off with paintings that look like “VHS hovering on pause.” And now artist Margo Wolowiec is mapping digital distortion on a series of glitch-inspired, textile and ink-based canvases that would appeal to the ravenous hordes at Fashion Week looking for the next great idea.

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Blue, Pink, Black, 2013, Handwoven polyester, cotton, dye sublimation ink. Image Credit: Phillip Maisel

Born in Detroit and based in San Francisco, Wolowiec has exhibited her work at The Center for Performance Research in Brooklyn, Root Division in San Francisco, and as far away as Seoul's Uri Gallery. As noted in her artist statement for the glitch series, Wolowiec is interested in how personal histories, memories, touch, and places are distorted and “truncated” in an increasingly digital world.

Purple, White, Yellow II, 2014, Handwoven polyester, cotton, dye sublimation ink. Image Credit: Highlight Gallery

In her most recent work Wolowiec records, in a singular moment, the “slippage” of data transfer from one form to another. VHS pause distortion, noise, and other digital artifacts disintegrate Wolowiec's images, blurring them to the point that they can't help but look atmospheric. Think of it like the virus Snow Crash in Neal Stephenson's cyberpunk novel of the same name; a viral drug that produces static (snow) as it crashes avatars in the Metaverse, the virtual reality system built on the internet. Like the characters in the novel, Wolowiec brings the snow crash out into the physical world, dusting our virtual avatars and other online images with static of the material kind.

Black, Magenta, Green on White, 2013, Handwoven polyester, cotton, dye sublimation ink. Image Credit: Phillip Maisel

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Wolowiec does this with only handwoven polyester, cotton, and dye sublimation ink. It looks like an incredibly time-consuming process; which is interesting given that cyber space-time is so instantaneous. The whole series works as kind of an intense slow-down of the internet's speed. Glitch art can be made in seconds online. Bring that glitch into the real world, and it takes time to produce, not to mention extreme patience.

Blue, Yellow, Blue, 2013, Handwoven polyester, cotton, dye sublimation ink. Image Credit: Phillip Maisel 

“I am concerned with the slippages that occur when information is translated from one source to another, where meaning shifts and migrates, and data becomes malleable,” Wolowiec writes in her artist statement. “Whether fractured memories are materialized into sculptural form, information is embedded into threads of woven cloth, or woven cloth is unraveled and fragmented into multiple different forms, tangible spaces are created that allow for a deeper contemplation of our evolving landscapes of immateriality.”

Purple, White, Yellow I, 2014, Handwoven polyester, cotton, dye sublimation ink. Image Credit: Highlight Gallery

Wolowiec is definitely translating that concept into dynamic art. If she continues mapping the places where the virtual and the real intersect, it's sure to be stunning.

Margo Wolowiec is represented by Anat Ebgi Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.