A Case for the Holographic Object Mary Harman Montreal, Canada ABSTRACT Keywords: hologram, art object, contemporary painting The reconstructed holographic object embodies both the physical reality of the original and its altered, transcendent state; in effect, it is simultaneously the real and the abstract, the body and the soul. When the artist combines the hologram with other elements, creating multiple realms and dimensions, the viewer can glimpse the possibility of a larger, more encompassing reality. This is, perhaps, the experience of Art. The author surveys her own work, beginning with early attempts to simulate three-dimensionality and explore the interfaces between two and three dimensions. Prior to her work in holography, she created trompe l’oeil painted constructions and “vitrines,” windowed boxes that contained objects and layered transparencies. She will discuss her recent paintings and installations in which she continues to use representational images, familiar objects whose allusive nature readily connects to the viewer’s own memory and reality. Through metaphor and symbol, the simple holographic object aids in the exploration of illusion, what is real and what is false, what is permanent about life and what dies.
