WSU fine artist explores ‘internet addiction’ with paintings
adriana![Joe Hedges.](https://wpcdn.web.wsu.edu/wp-cas/uploads/sites/648/2019/08/hedges_joe.jpg)
Washington State University fine arts faculty member Joe Hedges has been thinking hard about the slash in his title: Assistant Professor of Painting/Intermedia.
“There’s a lot of ambiguity with that slash,” Hedges said. “Is it painting or intermedia, painting and intermedia, or paintings that are both painting and incorporate other media? I have basically been trying it all.”
Among Hedges’ latest artworks are oil paintings of beautiful landscapes but with a twist. They incorporate flat screen televisions, smart phones or other objects to become what he calls “Hypercombines” — paintings that are connected to the internet.
“I started thinking about this buzz phrase that was going around a few years ago, ‘the internet of things,’ and asking myself why couldn’t an oil painting be part of the internet of things? What would that look like?” he asked.
Those questions have inspired and informed several of his new works to be exhibited at Artworks Gallery in Loveland, Colorado, Nov. 8–Dec. 18, and at Chase Gallery in Spokane, Wash., Jan. 3–March 25.