Worldwide connectivity offers the ideal medium for viral epidemics. There are 50,000 computer viruses in existence at this moment. Anti-virus companies and research institutions detect approximately 500 to 600 each month. Through their malicious code, they can abet everything from electrical malfunctions to terrorist activities. Ten percent of viruses have the potential to destroy a company’s data, breach security, harvest private user details or cause wide-scale monetary losses. It may come as a relief to know that military logistical systems are not connected to the internet.
Bonifacho’s new series explores these tensions between the logical, linear scripting of virus programs and their capacity for destruction. In the simplest terms, he imitates the effects of computer viruses and worms by scrambling letters and messages in his large-scale oil paintings. His work carries the elegance of programming code. It also indicates the deep layers of chaos and confusion caused by viruses on the wildlist – those viruses currently causing infections in the real world.
