Geoffrey Pugen, Webtology: Prisms at MKG127, Toronto

Webtology: Prisms by Geoffrey Pugen, curated by Michael Klein, at MKG127, Toronto, 15/02/2025–15/03/2025.

Exhibition Text:
Webtology: Prisms explores speculative futures through digital collage, integrating sourced imagery, 3D modeling, and AI-generated textures. Pugen begins by extracting and manipulating fragments from science fiction novel covers—erasing elements, generating new ones, and assembling them into new compositions, resulting in a form of what the artist refers to as “techno paintings.”

This transformed imagery is then collaged with additional textures and details, with the final layer integrating 3D models rendered in wireframe. The final layer is a repurposed 3M Prism Film (BEF) from discarded LCD screens, adhered with hand-painted glue techniques that create shifting depths of transparency and reflectivity. Through this process, a hauntology emerges where past utopian dreams resurface as echoes of futures yet unrealized.

The exhibition features two video sculptures and 2D prism collages, focusing on the evolving relationship between technology and ecology. The video sculptures take the form of a black hole and a crystal, each representing opposing yet interconnected forces: the void of technological collapse and the refractive possibilities of regeneration. Using synchronized video, these sculptures immerse viewers in an atmospheric interplay of light, motion, and form.