Still Life Scans    2018        Jillian Mayer x Miami International Airport

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By combining various materials and objects, Mayer creates sculptural assemblages intended to be photographed  from the monitor’s perspective of  the X-ray security scanning machines. While these machines have been in use for several decades, came into regular usage after the September 11 attacks, what should register as a highly charged device is entirely banal. Mayer reanimates this apparatus by making aesthetic rather than utilitarian images through its lens. Such images further subvert the machine’s intentionality, as Mayer’s resulting compositions are whimsical and humorous rather than expectedly tedious or bleak.  

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Objective: To create artistic compositions via the security machines at the airport.

Concept: These scanner machines have a practical function, to decode our most essential personal items in an effort to create a safe environment for the masses. But what if these machines could be used as an art tool? I intend to recontextualize the digital data that these machines create into photographic prints of mixed materials.