Eden Scroll is one of a series of works in Carla Gannis’s La Emoji Lujuria Collection. The video features three animated scenes: Paradise, Island of Lost Tech and Eden, that act as “emoji translations” of the left panel of Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights.
The work’s title alludes to its exploration of the impact new technology has on the way images are read and experienced. Though the original painting, from which it is inspired, the work is laid out as a triptych to be read left to right. In Gannis’s version, there is so much imagery in each panel that the viewer’s gaze scrolls down the painting, top to bottom and back. The work is “hyper mediated,” saturated with content and imagery. It transcribes historic figures, elements and narratives - and the histories and societies to which they allude - into a contemporary visual sign system, laying out the connections and differences between the two.
A recurring theme in Gannis’s work is digital semiotics and modes of virtual communication. Eden Scroll explores the ways in which these new modes of communication collide with more historical forms of expression, revealing both constancy and change in human nature.
