‘Quirky’ new exhibition from Manga artist John
- R.KEY – or quirky –an exhibition of art in Q.R. Code from by Galway artist John Jennings is running at the city’s PorterShed in Eyre Square, until January 16.
QR Codes are little broken black square boxes, like barcodes, that contain information. They are used to label products and for entertainment and transport.
If have a QR Code scanner on your phone, you point it at the code and it gives you a link to a website or a product online, says John.
"It’s really is a clever way of delivering a long piece of information, but using a small space."
QR codes are usually used for marketing and business promotions, but John is adapting them for his art.
"This is the third time I used QR codes to exhibit art,” he says, explaining that he displays the codes instead of a picture.
“Viewers scan the code to see the art,” he explains.
However, realising that people might be a bit wary about scanning unseen images into their phone, John has placed a preview image beside the code "so you know what you're getting into before you scan”.
The title of the exhibition is Q.R.KEY, which is John’s way of playing with words.
"Q.R." represents QR Codes and ‘key’ means that the code is the key to viewing the art. Also, if you say it quickly enough it sounds like the word ‘quirky’,” he remarks
Once decoded, the exhibits consist of John's usual style of cute Manga type characters and quirky images. It can be seen until February 16 in the PorterShed.