John Halpin (b. 1964)Joanna

Artists have long used new technologies to challenge, deceive and entertain the viewer. John Halpin’s artwork Joanna, appears at first glance to be a photographic portrait but is in fact a 3D rendering. The artist used cutting edge technology to scan his friend Joanna in a 3D scanning lab and then integrated her into an imaginative miniature environment. His subjects are unable to see the camera, unsure where to look and gaze off into the distance. Halpin situates these figures in deliberately artificial contexts that challenge our understanding of scale and reality, as well as setting up a tension between imagined worlds and the domestic objects and suburban architecture that populate the images.