“No Man Land” journeys through a virtual world created by Mary Pakinee using the popular computer graphics game engine, Unreal Engine. It is a world where nature thrives, populated by diverse species of flora imported from existing images online. The artist describes her process as a random throwing of assets onto the engine, relinquishing a degree of control to the program to generate details and objects.
Six prints on metal sheets further suspend these perspectives for our consideration. They are chosen views from her virtual world, offering subjects that affected her most during her journey. These renderings are in turn edited through digital painting techniques, displaying Mary’s characteristic virtuosity in realistic illustration. In Some Rock (2022), Mary hones in on an unassuming rock that she discovered, enjoying the dramatic presence it exudes when gazing up at it from a low viewpoint. Elements of the composition were then manipulated by the artist to either remove or emphasise features, such as the reeds of grass painted in the foreground. These works are representational in a way that celebrates these images as simulated versions of nature, whilst reflecting the artist’s emotions towards and interventions upon their artificial states.