It’s a truth self-evident that the internet increasingly encroaches upon every element of our lives, not least the ways that we produce, consume, and respond to media. Each day as we navigate overlapping digital platforms, we observe, interpret, and deploy a barrage of images, navigating their meanings through an elastic intuition of the patterns and associations that form their contexts.

Nathan Harper, a multidisciplinary artist working in both physical and digital mediums, repurposes these familiar points of reference, crafting alternative modes of existence which are at once far less fleeting than the average life cycle of a meme, far more precarious than a digital footprint.

Playing with meaning is something artists have always sought to do, particularly in reference to contemporary culture, but Harper’s work underscores the increasing democratization of this rebellious creative endeavour. With an immeasurable digital landscape literally at our fingertips, he beckons us to remould the malleable cultural ‘truths’ which surround us, his work forming a monument to intertextuality, idiosyncrasy, and an impish inclination for fucking with outdated, institutional notions of ownership.

Would you like to introduce yourself and your creative practice?

My name is Nathan Harper; I am an interdisciplinary artist based in Denton, Texas, pursuing my MFA in New Media Art. My work explores digital identity and subculture through videos, virtual experiences, and objects.

Your artistic process takes many forms, with your dirt pieces proving particularly fascinating. The sharp precision of the images you present in this messiest of mediums feels like a hybrid of hyper-modernism and prehistory, a marriage of digital references and natural form. What drew you toward it as a medium initially, and what keeps you coming back?

I first started experimenting with dirt as a medium in my paintings back in 2017. I had the realization that all art materials do at some point come from the earth. All of the paint I was using was made from broken-down minerals from commercial quarries, and I was essentially purchasing dirt to exist as an artist. I began reading about old techniques for foraging pigments partly out of spite. I didn't want to believe that spending lots of money on materials was required to be an artist. As I was starting to get the hang of foraging my own pigment, I was excited by the idea of "catching" the fast and indignant images of the high-speed internet stream and solidifying them as artifacts in the physical world with this slow and spiritual material. This would take on the forms of paintings, screenprints, digital prints (where I injected the dirt into old empty ink cartridges), and recently as ephemeral objects and installations. Each new form that it takes reveals new layers for me, so I keep going.

How does the process of making art that exists in a virtual (or mixed) reality differ to that produced in tangible media for you? Do these forms exist on an equal playing field of expression, or do you find yourself drawn more toward a particular form?

At the start of the pandemic, I was feeling uneasy about the idea of producing tangible objects that would require physical space to exist and be seen, so I really dove into the virtual out of necessity. But once I was deep into it, I found virtual work to be incredibly meaningful! I built a community with international artists and carved out alternative avenues for art rather than the traditional spaces like the mixed reality show I got to curate for Solo Show online set in an abandoned summer camp. Lately, I have been revisiting tangible work, but the pandemic has drastically reverted my feelings about art objects. The physical art world is a minefield of corruption and problematic history, and it feels like sidestepping the entire thing would be best. Still, the internet is also filled with surveillance capitalism and billionaires who sell our info to corporations, so neither is a clean field to create in. Either format can be equally as meaningful as long as it can be combative to the institutions that control them.

Which is more significant to you as an artist - the act of creating, or the final product?

The act of creating has always been more important to me than the final product. I like to think of art as a ritual and the objects only as of the by-product of those rituals. Whenever I can invite the viewer to be part of that ritual instead of just a passive onlooker, I prioritize that over an object that must last forever. Often the materials can be disposed of or destroyed as part of the ritual situation.

You have an affinity with internet culture, and a sense of humour when incorporating it into your practice, with much of your work enmeshing reference to memes, anime and #cursed images to form an esoteric pattern of signs legible only to the terminally online. In one recent piece, 'The Hedgehog's Dilemma', you invited participants to google their name + "the hedgehog", submitting a found image to be printed and displayed in a physical space, making an existing viral trend material. How do you think the internet is changing the way people create and respond to art?

The majority of the ways that the viewer will interact with your work will be online. Even if you didn't intend for that to happen and you think of your art as objects in a physical room, only so many people can come to your art show, but an infinite amount can find you online. Artists can mourn this and say that it is terrible or simply activate the work's online presence as part of it. Even if the online portion is not the entire work itself, documentation images online are now the primary vehicle for art interaction and are no longer an afterthought. I love how you worded "signs legible only to the terminally online" because, for so much of history, art has been layered with esoteric references to cultural signifiers that only those that are privileged, or wealthy could understand. I love the idea that the internet has inverted that relationship! Art is no longer a secret handshake for the rich but perhaps one for the young.

Aside from the internet, who or what are your main inspirations, from an aesthetic, historical, or social perspective?

Semiotics, cybernetics, religion, and spirituality.

Tell us about what you're currently working on, do you have any upcoming projects?

Currently, most of my energy is going into creating my thesis show that will open late this spring at The University of North Texas. It will involve work centred on a recent medical crisis I had and the financial problems it has caused as well. Elements of this work will be virtual and available online, as well as new kinds of objects for me that involve me interacting with online scams that promise financial benefits. Lots of these are very new experiments for me.

Is art school worth it?

I developed so much in art school; but some of it was despite my education and not because of it. Education is great and can be life-changing, but I do feel like art education has not changed much in a long time – there are some outdated ideas in art schools. I don't think this is a new thing though, as art is supposed to march forward at high speed and education is a slow turning wheel. Artists will always be a step ahead of the art world. One of the best words of advice I have received in grad school is that if all of your professors get what you are doing, your work is probably not challenging enough. You should piss at least some of them off.

What's your favourite meme?

Peter Griffin's key blade battle against Sans as the Halberd sinks in the background. This is more beautiful than anything I've ever seen at a museum.