Glitch Western Artist talk?—?jonCates

“Thank you so much. It’s so nice to be here wit yawl. Thanks fir being here, in person! i’m almost always on Internet. i’m a vry Internet person, so it’s cool to be in this physical place, Project Space 110 Gallery wit Art && humanbeings. Amazing!

i’m a Digital Artist. i work inn a domain called Glitch Art, which is, by my definition, the Art of Surprise. That’s what i like to tell folks: Glitch Art is the Art of Surprise. Say’n it this way helps us break outta mayhaps more technical expectations we have abt how somethin is made. Although i’m vry happy to answer any questions or explain any technical details abt how my Glitch Western Art is created. The larger conceptual framework that i’m always working in && that i’ve bin developing is the Glitch Western. This process is actually rly tied to Taiwan && Taipei because i’ve bin coming back && forth, for many, many years.

In, 2016, i got invited to have my work in exhibition here. The 鳳甲美術館 Hong-Gah Museum’s biennial exhibition. i was rly happy && excited to to do that. It gave me the opportunity to reflect critically on where i am from, sum of the ideologies that are in my culture, a white American culture, so that, in my work, i could reflect on critically on my connections to genocidal settler-colonial imperialism, racism, and the industries of slavery in the United States. i’ve always bin doing that work, but this was a good opportunity for me to think && feel my way specifically through The Western genre. i asked the questions: What is a Western && whois is in The Western? Now, i love Westerns, but i also have, a love-hate relationship with The Western. So, in my Glitch Art, i began to ask myself: What can a Western be? The first opportunity, like i said, that i took to do that intensely was here, in Taipei, Taiwan, in 2016.

Then, in 2018, a couple years later, i premiered my first feature film. 鬼鎮 (Ghosttown) is an experimental Western movie. That was rly fun to make, rly rly weird to do. It was vry cool to make a movie as a Glitch Artist, not as a filmmaker so much, but as a Glitch Artist. Then we can kind of jump forward to today because we are moving quickly. 2025. i’ve bin do’n this fir a pretty long time && i’ve bin think’n && feel’n abt these different issues for quite a while.

The technical side is vry related to the conceptual side. This work for the show here at Project Space 110 Gallery is an installation or sculptural approach to Digital Art. i am using the materials && the devices themselves, as themselves vry intentionally. The projector is actually a projector. The screen is a television screen, but left on the floor, in the corner. The tablet is the size of a hand, so they are different sizes that you’re alrdy familiar with. These devices have different ways of operating && we have different ways of interacting wit them physically. They are part of our lives. That’s how we actually live && work with the technologies that we have && that have surrounded us. We are in their environment && they have become ‘naturalized’ (as aspects of) our natural environment. As this show is called, they are also Disrupted Landscapes that we live in.

In my Glitch Western world there are many small details, just as there are elements for my own personal archives here in the installation. Jocelyn (Jocelyn Shu 舒琮維, curator of the exhibition) asked me a while back, if if each of these works, or if my work in general, is made up of individual artworks && the answer is no, It is not. The Glitch Western is definitely an ongoing process, a conversation, worldbuilding && also kind of game-playing. That’s why you see, physically, small details such as these dice, poker chips, playing cards… This gameplay logic is a set of direct references. These are actual items from my life that are vry important to me, that i carry around && keep with me. Cards that i grewUp wit or games i love to play. For instance, this vry Catholic lenticular print, is a postcard of the Marian Apparition appearing to young Saint Bernadette in Lourdes. The Virgin Mary, Mother of God, appearing && disappearing…”

Question: “Could you say something more abt the image of the horse?”

“Yes, of course!. Horses are quintessentially part of The Western genre. They’re also, well, horses are rly close to my heart. i love horses. i didn’t get to growUp wit horses because they’re too expensive, but a friend of mine had horses && then my cousin had a, like a horse ranch in Kentucky. My family is from Kentucky && its famous for horses. So, i did get to visit wit horses, but they’re just iconic aren’t they? This horse here is a literal dream of horse, an artificial imagination of a horse. This horse is generated with AI, so it’s an AI imaginary of a horse but also based on real horses && our real human dreams of horses. In Kentucky people unironically wear cowboy hats but it’s not The West, is it? It’s not Texas, or California. We have a big imagination abt The West && The Western. Mayhaps we can say that probably, errbuddy from United States has a lil bit of this imagination because it’s in our culture that we dream of The West. && when we dream The West, we see horses.”?

— ?jonCates, Disrupted Landscapes exhibition Artists Talks at Project Space 110, Sunday, February 23rd 2025

Project Space 110 新北市新店區新店路110號 №110, Xindian Rd, Xindian District, New Taipei City 台北，台灣 (Taipei, Taiwan)