Bionic
Artist: Julianna Pijar
Digital Art
May 2022
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
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A hand gently reaching across and down, hovering above a purple lily. This artwork is marked by comparisons: the organic beauty of the natural hand and flower with strips of binary helping frame sharp squares and rectangles, bright yellows and oranges with purples and blues, and overlaid halos around the images enclosed in bright textured boxes on a flat dark teal background.
The hand is human, but decorated with the electrical board of a computer; the flower looks like it could grow in a garden, but it is overlaid with an alien, supernatural blue and purple mist, as if the entire lily is dissipating into the air and turning into the matte background. What is inside the other squares? Vibrant yellow and orange wisps, streaks, and mysterious forms: some look like more electronic innards, others like a brain or fingerprint.
What makes a human in the modern era? Our physical bodies or the artifacts of our brains found in technology and art? Perhaps we can only live by contrast and comparison.
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Julianna Pijar was a member of the Class of 2023, graduating with a B.S. in Neuroscience and a minor in Studio Art. She participated in WZBC and the Gavel.
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Pijar made this digital artwork as a final project for Issues and Approaches to Studio Art. She was prompted to create a surrealist artwork, but Pijar expanded upon the open-ended instructions. She was inspired by digital collages and the surrealist Dani Pendergast. This artwork was featured on the cover of Stylus: Fall 2022.
Article by: Sindey Amar