This work faces head-on the historical difficulties of both post-modernism and of the fact that our world is completely saturated with images. In regard to the former, it is well-known that there is a current pointlessness of the endless re-iteration of styles in the neo format. In regard to the latter, there is a sense that any image that could exist has been presented either in visual art, photography, cartoon, film, or video. The world is a-swim with images.

In response to this current zeitgeist, Shottenkirk has chosen to examine not the language embedded in one of modernism's styles but to investigate the possibility that we have arrived at one relatively cogent language that is the union of the diverse languages. It is post the post-modernism.

In response to the difficulty of image saturation, Shottenkirk has gone back to the very beginning of Western painting and chosen the artist who might represent '0' on the number line: Giotto. The investigation uses the basic schemata of Giotto's The Virgin's Procession in order to present and re-present the image in various modes as a way of going beyond image. The practice examines how image qua image brings us into the world of thought: art is not merely sensory pleasure but it is a presentation of visual symbols that connote conceptual frameworks. Therefore, the practice is not about the image. In this way it is different from other artists' works. It does not paint a subject – there is no content in the way that visual art has always had content. The image is a given and as such is unimportant. The meaning is not referenced in that way. What it is doing is showing the process of translating and symbol formation.

The Giotto is the schemata of the explanation. Like all schema it is adopted, changed, taken apart, put back together. To look at it over and over, in an infinite permutation of forms, we stop looking for the image and look merely at the act of looking. There is no new information to be gained from looking at the image because we know already what it is. The parts of the image play their appropriate roles and they can shift from instance to instance, but the main message is that a unified language is being used and that the questions are not in 'content'.

The image is not about giving a new image; there are no new images. It is always just a way into the world of visual knowledge. The investigation takes the form of paintings, text on paper that can be taken by the viewer, video, animation, computer website, and a sound piece. A series of five paintings forms a game “Schemata Game 1.1: Art Cards” whereby viewers can play the game either directly on paper in the gallery or through the website version at denashottenkirk.com. The sound piece is a game played with the participant standing on an LED screen that allows a sort of voting with your feet. In short, the exhibition is meant to be about thought, but it is perhaps more about the fun confusion that happens when thought is attempted.

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