Search 2021 (Vol.1)

Search 2021 is a published conceptual artwork that is a comprehensive documentation of the artist Joshua Hashemzadeh's internet search history. This book is a single volume (Vol.1) out of 4 that records one year's worth of searches done during the 2021 calendar year. Which parts of you live online? And which parts don't? The oddity of engaging with the intangible is something we have normalized lusted for and feared as our digital footprint and virtual ecosystems have matured to scale - It's this contemplation that inspires my ongoing series SEARCH a collection of performance-driven art books that archive and materialize all of my time on the web. This three-volume set comprising over 1000 pages of searches documents the curiosities inspirations and methodology behind my studio practice and life as an artist from Jan. 1 - Dec.31 2021. Originally started in 2015 after the completion of my undergraduate program at SFAI this endeavor aims to build an immersive library that documents my web history over the course of my life. Although developed as a loose bibliography for my artistic practice I find these objects can exist sculpturally on their own. These artworks reflect on time and physical mass in a visceral and ubiquitous manner that I harken back to early inspirations like On Kawara and Richard Serra. Search 2021 touches on similar sculptural principles and further connects to the notion of a body as it moves through digital space. I love knowing that as my archive gets longer the work will inevitably get bigger. At some point as I age the work will outsize my physical presence and hold more information than I can ever remember. At that point it becomes questionable which object represents us best the body or the history it leaves behind.