Christopher Golden creates colourful digital environments that utilise visual abnormalities

Christopher Golden, who works under the moniker The Studio Gold, uses CGI and new media platforms to create visual content that “activates architectural and digital landscapes”. Inspired by companies who fit their stores experimentally, such as the Korean brand Gentle Monsters, Christopher is drawn to synthetic spaces. He mimics them, using 3D as a medium or tool “to create digital realism that simulates the real world in a similar way”. His work is hyperrealistic yet at the same time, their vibrant colours and strange movements create anomalies that give the pieces a unique twist. “Abnormalities create pieces that stand out from the crowd”, he tells us, “it’s also a way to provide a signature element that becomes a key component to the overall composition”.

Christopher’s digital creations can be both calming and exuberant – sometimes using vibrant colours to excite, other times the rhythm mimics the calming motion of waves. “My work should transport you to another world”, the artist tells It’s Nice That, “but sometimes the focus is more about creating something visually relaxing. It is important when doing A/V installations not to overwhelm the viewer”. The artist uses a particular palette to inform the mood of his work, using cooling blues or pops of pink and orange for varying effects. His surreal environments feature colours morphing, dissolving and separating. The power of the “imagination” inspires the artist, taking you to unexpected places – such as throwing you inside a bloodstream, or into a tropical jungle.

Christopher is drawn to the control you have in a 3D space; you can create your own realities. “Accessibility to digital tools is allowing more creatives to enter into these mediums”, he comments. “I think at some point the tools will become more of a sandbox, where you’ll be able to just drag and drop your ideas into reality”.

For his creative process, Christopher approaches a project like “a digital collage”, by layering different materials. “Objects are often created, pulled apart and put back together to create interesting or new ways of looking at a landscape”, he explains. The result is work that mimics reality, but with a strange quality added to it; he utilises space in a way that is both hypnotising and magical.