Troika, High Sierra, 2024

2024

Medium

Dye sublimation print on aluminum

Dimensions

202 × 59.7 cm

Edition

Edition 1/3 + 1 AP

Status

In Gallery Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-156302

The work series “Obsolete Landscapes” (2024) shows fragments of desktop backgrounds printed on aluminum that Apple Inc. has been using for its operating systems since 2014, with the tech company drawing on impressive landscape images of mountain ranges, deserts and islands in California. Beginning with Yosemite (10.10.5) and El Capitan (10.11.6), the naming has expanded from the titles of individual peaks to entire mountain ranges such as Sierra (10.12.6) and High Sierra (10.13.6). The Mojave Desert (10.14.6) followed, as did Santa Catalina Island (10.15.7). Troika deliberately removes the iconic images from these backgrounds, leaving only the sections depicting the sky. The collective thus breaks with the aestheticized depictions of landscapes that show a view of supposedly untouched nature, which runs counter to the extractivism that is practiced to supply computer-based systems. "Obsolete Landscapes" explores the relationship between technological advancement and the degradation of these landscapes - both in terms of the extraction of resources for the manufacture of products and the fact that with each new operating system, the previously selected landscapes become obsolete as a result of the update. Nature is reduced to a digital facsimile that symbolizes the human relationship to the environment as an interchangeable resource. The sky, untouched by capitalist appropriation, serves as a reminder of the interconnectedness of these places through the atmosphere, which envelops the entire planet in perpetual motion.