www.beetles

Name: Ragnar Digital, LLC
Price range: $

1996

Fujichrome
7 9/16" x 9 7/16"
Titled, numbered, signed and dated with pencil on lower margin “www.beetle, 3/35, Lillian Schwartz 1996”

Female Pioneer

Description

This playful Fujichrome print by Lillian Schwartz features several stylized beetles, probably drawn by the artist with a graphics tablet and light pen, fighting for space against various text boxes. Using image-editing software, the artist renders the genus of different beetles in bold contrasting text, perhaps referencing hyperlinks, alongside the words “kill,” “reload,” two red and yellow circles, and the non-functioning URL “http://www.beetles.nature/html.” The daubs of red, white, blue and pink forming the background feel rasterized and distorted, achieving an effect of shifting ground. The World Wide Web had launched in 1993, and here Schwartz was likely reflecting on the implications and aesthetics of an emergent internet culture. Other works from this series of digital artworks feature cave paintings and dodos, complete with their own fictional web addresses.