Tim Irani (b. 1989, Orange County, California) earned his degree in Architecture from the University of San Francisco before working as a mobile product designer. These skills, along with a strong interest in the sciences, inform his artistic practice which contains visual elements of computer-generated imagery and pop art. Irani’s art showcases a playfully distorted, plant-clad built environment where technology and the natural world coexist in careful balance.
Viewing his artworks as a tangible representation of our current digitally augmented reality, Irani’s work captures our obsession with the potential of digital products to optimise our lived experience. He provides commentary on how quickly everything, from the newest iPhone to cat memes, becomes obsolete. In doing so, he lends a voice to the trees, the birds, and to technology itself, imagining each as its own sentient entity capable of feeling and cross-communication.
“I am both frightened and captivated by what the future holds and the internal and external effects of technological bio integration on us. My art serves as an ongoing observational catalogue documenting the inherent irony of technology.” – Tim Irani, 2022
His undergraduate studies in architecture reinforced his desire to build and fostered his understanding of the fundamental mechanics of product design. He obsessively plans his works using a combination of analogue and digital sketching, merging traditional painting techniques with sculpted wood elements in what he calls “structural paintings”. Irani’s creative process demands us to both question what we consider real, as well as blur the line between hand-made and manufactured good.