Created as a talisman to help us refocus on what matters most in our lives, Auriea Harvey’s “The Mystery [v5-dv1]” is a digital sculpture that also serves as a memento mori-a type of still-life from Western art history that is a reminder of both beauty and death. The discrete images that make up “The Mystery [v5-dv1]” can be seen as symbolic; for example a skull (bone), a face (nature), a rose (beauty), and a braid (death). The composite image of the sculpture rotates in a timeless way, as if it is waiting for the viewer to “use” the object (which may be digitally printed by the collector) to give it a new life. Multiple file formats also allow the collector to make use of the sculpture in the ways that feel most meaningful to them. Harvey’s work is a self-portrait; she has used her own face as a basis for the sculpture, thereby inserting the face of an African-American woman into the art historical narrative and creating new allegories with this refiguration, thus updating sculpture both digitally and socially.
