iArt inspired by apple products!

NEW YORK—This year Apple officially became the
biggest technology company in history, and on its way to global
domination it has conquered the art world as well, with its fetishized
gadgets increasingly providing inspiration to artists of all stripes —
whether their attitude be worshipful, irreverent, or downright
destructive. So, in time for a Christmas when countless trees will shade
an i-something or other, ARTINFO has surveyed the range of art inspired by the different-thinking computer juggernaut. Enjoy.

1) David Hockney's embrace of making paintings on the glowing surfaces of the iPhone and iPad has made him practically an unofficial Apple spokesperson. After emailing
"virtual paintings" of flowers to his friends for several years, he is now showing the works publicly at the Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint-Laurent Foundation in Paris through January 30. Hockney's digital hues have been compared to those of Picasso and Matisse, banishing any doubt that high art and touch screens could co-exist. "Color seduces," the artist says in a video on the Foundation's Web site. "Of course it does. What's wrong with that? Don't you want to be seduced?" 

2) British artist Tom Phillips's illuminated manuscript "A Humament" was decades in the making, and he credits the iPad with
finally bringing it to full fruition. The project began back in 1966,
when Phillips took "A Human Document," a Victorian dime novel by
little-known author W.H. Mallock and reworked it —
through text, collage, pen and ink, and painting — into an entirely new
version. He has made four such book editions, but the fifth was just
published as an iPad app, with a version for the iPhone set to launch in
a few days. Phillips told the Independent
that "the pages look better on the iPad than they do in real life"
because of the screen's glowing quality. The app also has an added
feature called the "Oracle," in which two pages can be matched together
at random, creating interesting juxtapositions and new meanings.

3) Just sticking an "i" in front of a piece, however, does not a great artwork make. To wit, the iPhone tower by Electroboutique (the artistic identity of Aristarkh Chernyshev and Alexei Shulgin) was generally considered the worst sculpture at the 2010 Frieze Art Fair. The giant twisted iPhone sculpture was titled "3-G International" — a cute reference to Tatlin's Tower, the never-realized helix-shaped monument to the Third International. (Get it? Capitalism versus Communism!). But while Tatlin's tower has a
crazed visionary appeal, Electroboutique's big curvy iPhone is flashy
yet boring.

4) Brooklyn-based artist and designer Alex Dodge had a show last summer of technology-inspired artwork that felt like a sci-fi version of the Apple Store. Although his start-up, Generative Inc., presents itself as a real R&D laboratory, the "prototypes" in this
show represent varying levels of reality and fantasy — from "Powerstep"
shoes that would use the energy of your stride to charge your mobile
devices to the more disturbing "Sleep Talker," a white cap with
electrodes that would sync your dream life to that of your friends
through an online interface.
What would Philip K. Dick make of this idea?

5) Erik Isaac made art out of 100 shattered iPhone screens, dangling them from fishing line a few inches above the gallery
floor in an installation that was intended to be a meditative reflection
on the life cycle of a product. While he loves his iPhone, the artist told the Denver Post
that he wanted to "show it at a lower elevation, to literally take its
status down." What were viewers at the exhibit talking about? "Mostly
about their broken phones," Isaac said.

6) But Isaac's treatment of the iPhone looks positively gentle compared to Michael Tompert's Apple-based art. The San Francisco graphic designer purchased brand-new
Apple products, destroyed them, and took photos of the results. He shot
an iPhone with a handgun, crushed iPod Nanos on train tracks, and had a
hell of a time with the iPad. After it resisted a sledgehammer, Tompert
finally heated the device with a soldering torch until it exploded. For the L.A. Times's David Ng, "the destroyed gadgets contain strains of Dadaism and Surrealism." Despite his destructive impulses, Tompert, like Isaac, professes to love Apple — in fact, he's a former Apple employee.