Jeffrey Stuker – L - għajn

A solo exhibition by Los Angeles–based artist Jeffrey Stuker, featuring a new moving image work, two works on paper, and a limited edition publication. About Ehrlich Steinberg is pleased to present L-għajn, a solo exhibition by Los Angeles–based artist Jeffrey Stuker, comprising a new moving image work, two works on paper, and a limited edition publication. The exhibition centers on Stuker's new film, L-għajn, his most ambitious and expansive work to date. Developed over an extended period living and working in Malta, the film brings together strands of historical, scientific, technological, and autobiographical research that have occupied the artist's practice for more than a decade. L-għajn extends Stuker's research into the history of the simulated image—its earliest hardware, the development of the algorithms that made it possible, and its anticipation in mytho-religious practices predating technological modernity. The film combines footage recorded on the island with 3D animation, exploring the actuality of simulated phenomena alongside the allegorical resonance of documentary filmmaking. It begins with the microelectronic circuitry of the NV1, the first processor manufactured by the American technology company Nvidia Corporation, which was fabricated at the ST semiconductor factory in a southern village in Malta. Before settling on the name Nvidia, NV1 was used as shorthand for "next version." As meaning thickened around the phonetic pronunciation of this abbreviation, the company became Nvidia, a fusion of those initials with invidia, the Latin term for envy and an expression for casting the evil eye. Stuker follows these linguistic associations towards l-għajn—the Maltese term for evil eye—and the overlapping traditions and practices that have developed around it across the Mediterranean. The film traces the correspondence between the processor's manufacture in Malta and Nvidia's logo: an eye-shaped design recalling invidia within a culture known for its dense concentration of evil eye motifs, protections, and practices. The piece moves outward from the microscopic architecture of the processor and the industrial site of its manufacture to the changing landscape and built environment surrounding the factory, tracing traditions and practices associated with l-għajn from the neighbouring villages to the wider southern Mediterranean region. Among these are the stone eyes carved into the fortress walls surrounding Valletta's Grand Harbour, their spiral irises bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Nvidia logo. Presented alongside the film are two works on paper, for which Stuker draws in pencil over printed 3D-rendered images generated from models based on genetic sequencing data processed using Nvidia's machine-learning codebase. The data originates from a laboratory study of the "startle-first hypothesis," an evolutionary theory proposing that mimetic insects develop eye-like markings from earlier forms of camouflage and startling behaviour. The species depicted, Deroplatys desiccata, has itself evolved an eyespot bearing a disconcerting resemblance to the Nvidia logo—the same disembodied eye of invidia invoked throughout the film. The exhibition is accompanied by L-għajn, a limited-edition signed publication of 100 copies, comprising a newly commissioned essay and photographs by Stuker, produced through his research in Malta. Read more Toggle Film / Video Drawing Mixed media