{{angel}} = f e m Ʊr uses biomedical imaging to explore the reliquary impulses present in our encounters with machines. Relics allow members of the public to create tangible bonds between themselves and the divine through the physical remains of saints. Teeth, bones, blood, and other corporeal trinkets serve as embodiments of that which cannot be embodied. They let one grasp that which is permanently out of reach.
Heavenly bodies are incomprehensible to us humans, and we often construct representational anatomies for them as a means of coping with that inherent disconnect underlying our cosmologies. In {{angel}} = f e m Ʊr, angels are composed of both human and non-human parts. The femur itself is a 3D model of human skeletal remains reminiscent of the idealized forms found in anatomical sketches, while the feathers and markings it bears harken back to more monstrous historical interpretations of angelic bodies. The artist combines these two iconographic traditions in a vaporwave visual idiom to explore our substitution of religious divinity for cosmologies that increasingly center our experiences around digital actors. Digital relics help us confront the new technological sublime.
