By Sarah Wang

Adam Martinakis is a digital artist who produces various forms of computer generated visual media, ranging from animation to digital sculpture. His work often features deconstructed, threadlike versions of the human body, which he describes both as our home and as an expression of human presence. By combining this element of the natural world with a digital environment, he seeks to bridge the gap between the new machines that characterize the modern age and the natural machines that are human bodies.

This piece features two surreal figures engaging in a moment of passion. One body is larger and more angular while the other is smaller and more delicate, suggesting that one is male and the other female. Yet only the nose and lips are distinguishable, leaving a certain quality of ambiguity to the features of these two people. As a result, the viewer can actively engage in a digital world distinct from their own: their imagination is free to roam and to fill the identity of these bodies, whether with the infinite characters of literature and media or with that of the viewers themselves.

The myriad wires comprising the two figures resemble the billions of nerves woven throughout the human body, adding a sensual element of intimacy to the slight brush of the lips that promises. The masculine figure initiates the kiss, the feminine figure accepting the kiss with the slightest part of the lips but not quite reciprocating the action; the dichotomy between these two intentions seems to suggest an impending separation. The man might be whispering his parting words and the woman’s mouth parted in concentration as she strains to hear them—or she might be gasping out one last breath of desire. The nerves that comprise the figures gradually scatter and dissipate into nothingness as they branch away from the facial features, perhaps symbolizing the end of passion. The minimalist background is devoid of all but an endless sea of gray-blue: only emptiness lies beyond this moment. This kiss acknowledges the existence of intimacy, but it simultaneously closes the door upon any future possibility of such connection. The digital world reflects a moment all too common in our own: one final kiss.

Arena /2016 Arena /2016 Posted by Adam Martinakis on Friday, July 29, 2016