Substrate, 2003

Substrates, the edition accompanying Thomas Ruff’s eponymous series of works, is a vibrant exploration of digital image culture stripped of narrative content. Using comic book imagery sourced from the internet, Ruff digitally layered and multiplied fragments until the original motifs dissolved into swirling, luminous fields of color and form. The resulting compositions are immersive and abstract – pure surface and sensation – reflecting Ruff’s interest in how digital images function today more as aesthetic stimuli than representations of reality. Substrates offers a visual language for the excess, ambiguity, and allure of the virtual image world.