«If printers ever get really big, like a twenty by thirty
or thirty by forty, than it would really be great»
Andy Warhol
Through 2006 and 2007, Eva and Franco Mattes (who are also known as 0100101110101101.ORG) created portraits of avatars, i.e. the customizable personas that people inhabit in online virtual worlds. Addressing the new online environments as places to socialize, nurture celebrity, and perhaps leave one's real self behind, these images capture members of the popular online virtual world Second Life, combining the traditions of glamour photography with the brilliant colors and hard-line aesthetics of the game-world. The Mattes' work questions both the traditional role of portraiture and the nature of the morphing relationship between identity and public presentation in virtual worlds. Like Andy Warhol's legendary Factory, Second Life is about the creation of alternate identities, of building and living a fantasy.
