Down to the River, into the Street
Guy Lobwein
- Sitter: Self Portrait
- Medium: Digital Artwork
- Dimensions: 35cm x 35cm
- Representation: This artist represents themselves
About the artist and artwork
Guy Lobwein is a Meanjin, Brisbane, contemporary artist currently undertaking his Doctorate of Philosophy at QUT.
His research focuses on the use of expanded reality technologies in contemporary art, such as VR, AR and CGI, exploring how experimental creative practice can generate experiential and critically reflective experiences.
During the floods in 2022, Lobwein found it impossible not to think of Moloch, a figure in a famous poem called Howl, by Allen Ginsberg, American poet and founding father of the Beat generation.
‘Moloch was conceptualised in his poem ‘Howl’ as a scapegoat for the evils of contemporary society. Whether symbolising capitalistic greed, endless conflicts, or planetary ecocide, Moloch appears to me in the way I observe and practice art within social structures that continuously generate these nightmares.’
Even in the materials and tools that Lobwein uses to create art, (3D rendering programs, photogrammetry, and computer-generated graphics), virtual environments have become complicit in these disasters ‘frequently drawing our attention away from the inevitable dooms I feel powerless to change.’
