Barcode Signature ID

Barcode Signature Id 01
2022
Resin, plaster, varnish, India ink
19 × 12 × 7 cm
RT4A2203
Courtesy of the artist




Barcode
Signature Id 02

2022
Resin, plaster, varnish, India ink
19 × 12 × 7 cm
RT4A2203
Courtesy of the artist


The face is the cornerstone of our national identities. It counts for even more now that our phones open when they recognise it and governments use AI to identify people from grainy video footage. Like faces, signatures are unique to a person: a proof of identity, designed to be hard to forge.
The idea for these works goes back to the 2010s. They join a signature to an object made to display another: a resin and fibreglass face used in fashion to show sunglasses. The signature, vectorised, dehumanised, standardised, can be read as a fluid barcode; it replaces the eyes of these robotic, yet gendered, faces. Together they are about our relationship with identities, normalisation and standardisation.


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