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## Annunciation (2010)

by Tom Estes

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Tom Estes' 'installation' introduces a new kind of artwork that functions more as art proposal for a partially realized exhibition; a document of visual and spatial modes of presentation that theorizes a different approach.

The title of the work ‘Annunciation’ is a Biblical term which means the announcing of ‘the incarnation’ or a materialization of the unrealized in a concrete form. The work therefore relates to multiple worlds; possible, fictional or desired worlds which though different from the one we live in, directly influences our own.

In his practice, artist Tom Estes creates digital images as documentation of the works formation. this is the only physical manifestation of the original artistic intent. Though the state of being unrealized implies the potential for realization, these project are never intended to be carried out. By intentionally leaving the project unrealized, this has a flattening effect which merely implies the existence of the installation in real-time, three-dimensional space. This closed circuit of illusion mimics and merges with the mass media desire for immediate novelty; anticipating the online reduction of the 'installation' to a single image.

Tags: Bible ING Discerning Eye Mall Galleries Tom Estes

###### Full Description

As an artist Tom Estes is interested in the relationship between machines and humans. Machines enable us to do things but they also do things to us and do things at us. In a post-internet society, we are completely enveloped by abstract systems and inundated with information that we are struggling to come to terms with.

Through the work Estes explores the interplay between real space, virtual space and the digital as a shaping condition and structuring paradox. He tries to do this with wit and economy in order to examine how data-flow from the virtual realm impacts on the significance and symbolism of real-world human senses. Individual works such as this one can also be seen as part of a wider interdisciplinary practice that incorporates innovative web conversations and social networks. But in doing so, Estes has begun to generate unexpected questions about how photography might inscribe itself on the surface of reality- not to represent itself on the surface of reality –not to represent reality, nor to duplicate it, but to replace it.

'Annunciation' was on display at the Mall Galleries as chosen by Royal Academician and Keeper of the Royal Academy Eileen Cooper, for the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition. The 2011 ING selectors also included art critics, journalists and broadcasters Brian Sewell and Ossian Ward.

ING Discening Eye Chairman John Pensrose states:

"The ING Discening Eye has built an enviable reputation in the art world"

The work was also selected by The Biennial Project for Art Venice 2013 at The Venice Biennale.

http://www.discerningeye.org/archive/2010/2010_11.php

https://artselectronic.wordpress.com/2013/06/05/the-venice-biennale-and-the-vatican/

###### Work metadata

- Year Created: 2010
- Submitted to ArtBase: Friday Nov 25th, 2011
- Original Url: http://www.TomEstesArtist.com/
- Work Credits:
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###### Artist Statement

Born outside of Boston in The U.S.A, I moved to Paris and lived there for a couple of years before settling for London as my base of operations. i As an artist my work has been hung, played and performed in a few of the world’s right places and a couple of deliciously wrong ones. There is a real Peter Pan Syndrome at play in my art work and I suppose I would consider myself a carnival sideshow conceptualist, combining a bare-bones formal conceptualism with an eternal adolescent comic-prank DIY- approach.

For me ‘fantasy’ and ‘illusion’ are not a contradiction of reality, but instead an integral part of our everyday lives. I have always leaned toward making work participatory or immersive in some way so while my practice is characterized by the mediums of photography, performance and installation, individual works can also be seen as part of a wider interdisciplinary project that incorporates innovative web conversations and social networks.

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