Spirits

Spirits is a collection of minimalistic works by Ian Mukherjee of simple codes and repeated patterns that mimic the simplistic, recursive beauty of nature. Each work stems from the premise that we all come from the same building blocks—that we are all spirits living together to tell our stories. The inaugural gallery showcases early canvas explorations and virtual puppetry.

There is nothing more important in this world than making art. My goal has always been to increase the amount of happiness in the world. Art is the most direct way of achieving this. Spirits are my meditation, a methodical endeavor intended to imbue a canvas with the experiences of both myself and my ancestors in the simplest terms possible. Spirits are the best way I know how to communicate. They are an encryption. They can be decoded. I created the encryption process by hand. It was in response to recent developments in technology. I aim to take the job of the machine. Nowadays, people are simply a line item. A number to be minimized in a report. The only positive number a person represents in the tech world is the dollar value a company has extracted from them in the hunt for limitless growth. Culture is quashed, community crumbled, in the name of the dollar. Creativity becomes something to be automated and perfected. Creativity and perfection are incongruous. Creativity lies in our imperfections. Some of my art has mistakes. It is imperfect. But mistakes make us human. And we can't forget that we're human. Spirits are a celebration of our mistakes and what makes us human and a critique on the direction in which post-internet technology is taking us.