Artist Statement:

"What do you equip? What stays? What goes?

The entire shopping mall is at your disposal, but you pick from a single store. You could shop anywhere, but you choose to shop here.

What things do you use to move through the world, to grant you access? Access, to the places you need to go, to the person you want to become.

But how do those things colonize you? How do they remake you in their image?

In whose image?

What power do they have? Who gave it to them? What gives it to you?"

Project description:

"Inventory is a series of 31 plastic, Perler Bead, mosaics, one for each day of the exhibition. Each mosaic depicts a different object derived from the inventory screens within various video games. Each day the curator of Albatross will select a new object to don depending on their whim or personal interest. Perler bead sprites are an emergent popular form of craft used to make physical objects derived from digital pixel art. The objects selected as subject matter allude to possibility, are ambiguous in purpose, or otherwise point toward something off camera. In bridging the physical and the virtual we consider both the objects imagined purpose and the virtual self who would implement it.

Bio:

T. Nikolai is a visual artist based in Portland, Oregon. They are the co-founder of Compliance Division, a Portland exhibition space, and have an MFA in Visual Studies from the
Pacific Northwest College of Art. Their work is concerned with the
implications and intersections of digital technologies, capitalism,
fantasy, the occult, and net-based subcultures. They hold a BFA in
Painting and Drawing from the University of Utah, where they also acted as
Dungeon Master.

Website: http://www.travisnikolai.com/