Julien Bismuth

Julien Bismuth’s practice, which spans installation, collation and performance, is concerned with language, both colloquial and formal, and the gestures, expressions, signs and symbols that make it unique. Bismuth’s work examines how images are loaded with language, and vice versa, and how one forms the other in a cyclical dance between an object, its physical manifestation, and its disembodied conception. In 2015’s Steganograms, Bismuth created images encrypted with text, made with digital steganography and software formulated by his cousin. As the data of the original image is altered and increased – such as changing the colour of the pixels, or transcoding text into the image that changes in colour – the level of encryption becomes more visible. This work demonstrates the way that text, rather than supplementing in image and explaining its concept, can physically alter its perception and distort one’s understanding. Written by Goldsmiths CCA