At the Origin Lies the Likeness (2025)
UV-cured ink on dyed acrylic glass, optical-grade acrylic panels, LED light source with remote control, light guide plate, acrylic diffuser, reflective film
52.8 x 52.8 cm,
composed of 9 acrylic panels
The images in At the Origin Lies the Likeness are derived from the first digital image created using scanning technology in 1957 by Russell Kirsch—a portrait of his son, Walden.
Through a process of ultraviolet layer-by-layer transfer onto tinted acrylic, this image, once confined to the screen, is re-materialised, multiplied, and stratified, allowing the viewer’s gaze to hover between transparency and refraction. The work reflects on the dual nature of the digital image: it is both an intimate trace, rooted in the original human motivation and emotional intent behind the creation of technology, and a “technical image” shaped, encoded, and archived through technological logic. It exists simultaneously as a technological artefact and as an extension of reality.
By interweaving the visual and the material, the piece highlights the subtle and complex entanglement between lived experience and its technical reproduction, reminding us that technology can never fully detach from reality nor remain entirely neutral.