Richárd Kiss’s latest work, “Spatial resolution”, is inextricably linked to his previous works, also made without a camera, using images uploaded to the internet, such as “KEYHOLE” (2021), “World Wide Map” (2019-2020) or “PLA.net” (2018).
The work explored, collected and created complex collages of the now irreversible visual traces and wounds of humanity’s overconsumption and irreversible ecological crisis. Thanks to global visibility, nothing that happens on the Earth’s territory, to the Earth, can be hidden, everything has a visual trace, everything has been or is being photographed, and can be explored, analysed and used. The Anthropocene no longer hides or can hide its nature, it is unveiled.
The investigative work carried out using Google Maps was limited to four major areas and themes. Using images of landfills, car factories, plantations and cargo ships, sometimes numbering up to 1,200, the artist has spent hundreds of hours creating a condensation of images that are a heavy, high-resolution capsule of information on everything, or rather a small fraction of everything, that humanity has done and is doing to the planet, to nature, to its environment, to itself.
While in space, on the surface of the planet, these objects and traces almost disappear, are scattered, barely visible, especially when the uninitiated eye does not know what to look for, Richárd Kiss’ research and his work of highlighting, excavating and condensing makes what we might call the Anthropocene consciousness plastically visible and presentable. Everything we do not want to face.