Unread Messages addresses both the daily anxiety of an overflowing inbox and something more existential — the communicational space between us as we try, and often fail, to send and receive messages across every channel and medium. As Dodge puts it: “The dance of intention and interpretation is forever a noisy one that often seems miraculous in how well it seems to work.”
Signed, numbered, and dated by the artist. All Haystack editions come with a Certificate of Authenticity.
“The title of this print alludes to both the all too common daily anxiety producing phenomenon of unaddressed matters that aggregate in our inboxes”
– Alex Dodge
About the Artwork
Unread Messages addresses both the daily anxiety of an overflowing inbox and something more existential — the communicational space between us as we try, and often fail, to send and receive messages across every channel and medium. As Dodge puts it: “The dance of intention and interpretation is forever a noisy one that often seems miraculous in how well it seems to work.”
Produced by the artist and master printer Luther Davis at BRT Printshop — now Powerhouse Arts Printshop — using serigraphy, a process in which ink is pressed through a mesh screen one color at a time.
Curator's Note
In Unread Messages, we see Dodge using his signature raised pattern technique to depict a glossy, bulbous object swaddled in fabric. With almost photographic detail, the fabric rises and falls over the peaks and valleys of the obscured object.
The mass’s folds lack a shadow, but there lurks a hefty stain sitting beneath it, complete with shining grease-like splatters against a matte background. The artist playfully winks at us about unread messages on our phones and in our email accounts – we know something has arrived, but its contents remain mysterious.
About the Artist
Alex Dodge (b.1977, Denver, CO) is an internationally recognized artist. Although his works primarily take the final form of painting, his education and ever-growing knowledge of printmaking, coding software, and 3D design have led him to create some of the most innovative and cutting-edge techniques in art-making today.
