“See No Evil” is a text and image diary. It is an intimate ramble, partially  masked by drawings of creatures from Albertus  Seba’s Cabinet of Natural Curiosities produced by SMALL EDITIONS NY in 2021

While the 200 pages of original text remain constant, 165 digitized original colored pencil drawings are applied to the text by an algorithm so each of 20 volumes of the book are “masked differently” to afford different readings. 21 of the 165 drawings in each edition are targets for augmented reality moving images.

The text entries are run-on diary entries of a fictive anxious, urban person expressing a shaded side of the self; a litany of anxieties, complaints and mini-epiphanies. The drawings are images representing masks and facades for the written feelings, but seem even more revealing than the text in their savagery; renderings of the worst fears and greatest hopes. The subject matter is currently renderings re-rendered images from Seba’s Cabinets of Curiosities, aimed to present an encyclopedic view of all knowledge by empirical firsthand knowledge of specimens. Criteria for strategies for assembling and taxonomies were often subjective, often favoring oddities, and occasionally, faux and unnatural history. Specimens were contained in cabinets and rooms that formed a theater of the world; aimed at inspiring awe and wonder.  It’s a model that offers a great deal to the imagination.

We are performers, whether by pro-actively posting selfies, or being surveilled. We record and display our staged presences in our art forms, designing the selves we want to display.

These staged identities will be mirrored back to us.The project is an analog version of online platforms which let us display every aspect of our lives in real time. We construct scenarios, facades and masks of zealousness, enthusiasm, political correctness, outrage as well as decide what we deem is miraculous