Nick Gentry: Floppy VHS portraits

Nick Gantry was a bit annoying as a boy. He used to collect all those floppy disks and VHS tapes – even his mother didn’t know what is wrong with her most beloved. Until one day he became famous for recycling his whole stash of old data carriers into art (see the gallery at the end for a detailed brief on that).

Since graduating from Central St Martins in 2006, the focus has been to explore how technological advancement is affecting society. Throughout history, information has always been recorded on physical objects. Important documents, favourite songs, videos and more were stored on mountains of tapes, polaroids, cassettes and disks. As media is rapidly absorbed into the World Wide Web the rich variety of formats of the past are becoming obsolete.

Each floppy disk used in the paintings has a history and story of its own. It represents the increasing pace of the modern life cycle, where objects are created, used and disposed of quicker than ever. To challenge this notion, as these personal artefacts of life are cast aside, the obsolete are now given new life and a renewed purpose by using them as a medium for art.

Read more on Nick here.