SpringValle_ber_girls
2012 - Film & Video (Film & Video)
Petra Cortright
In the flash animation SpringValle_ber_girls , Petra Cortright collages together surreal scenes out of unnaturally idyllic desktop screensavers with equally unreal computer-generated women that pop in and out of the landscape. Cortright’s backgrounds are made seedy by the appearance of digitally-rendered strippers, while various layers of internet escapism collide together in an infinite loop. The dancing girls are sourced from VirtuaGirl, a software that makes footage of strippers available for download. This, in contrast with the fantastical digital worlds — which feature unicorns, birds and butterflies fluttering in untouched landscapes — raise questions about the way we view women in a digital landscape, while at the same time evoking a digital sort of impasto, reminiscent of impressionist painting.
Whether for a gallery or online audience, Petra Cortright uses the Internet as a medium, source, context and place where her work unravels. She is best known for her self-portrait videos created with a domestic webcam and then uploaded onto YouTube. The various effects that she applies to the clips are sourced from a variety of webcam softwares she has collected over the years. In her work, Cortright is the director, the actor, the editor all at once—allowing her to playfully explore ideas of the self and the body as it is represented in the digital realm, as well as the formal qualities of low-fi, homemade video. In more recent works, Cortright combines photos, gifs, memes, games, animation and even pornography sourced from the internet, mixing various forms of expression as means to meditate on the social ramifications of the medium. Cortright also creates 2D works—primarily Photoshop-based paintings transferred onto aluminum, linen, paper, or acrylic—where she overlays hundreds of digital layers composed by found samplings to simulate brush strokes.
