Video installation exploring identity, consumerism and late-capitalism. Completed for 'What Happens Next' project development studio at NYU & exhibited at the ITP Winter Show 2021.
You’ve heard of this temporary installation existing in a non-gallery space. This excites you because a lot of the time the white cube is a bit … flat. Despite being a cube. Perhaps you’ve been waiting to experience something art-world-tangent, but something a bit more transportive? The last few faux-naïf painting exhibitions in Chelsea were alright though. Passing through Downtown Brooklyn on your way to the venue you’re surrounded by urban noises, cars growling, streets hissing steam and clean cut concrete towering over you. You’re invited into the installation space. The evening sky makes for a dark setting and the room smells of cold bricks and moist concrete. The darkness of the space contrasts well with what seems to be a series of glowing screens. Looking around you walk nearer to the central installation, carefully not tripping over the construction debris. In front of you is a large screen lying on the ground, but it’s been sectioned off with more construction materials, a barrier of sorts to distance you from the work, but you’re compelled to lean over the barrier and peer into the video collage playing in front of you. The glowing light on your face as you lean over makes you feel as if you’re looking into a magic pool. A wishing pond? A reflection of yourself perhaps? How narcissistic to think this is about you.
Soothing sounds echo through the space; running water, the occasional droplets and very smooth organ-like synthesizers. If you closed your eyes maybe you’d imagine a spa. This is all very harmonious until an overly energetic voice confidently introduces itself to the experience and seems to be talking about a new reality. At this point you’re feeling particularly drawn to the bizarre video. The scenic moving wallpapers are being overlaid with all types of lifestyle products; particularly overly-produced product photography. Olay face cream? A jade roller? A scented candle? It feels like you’re scrolling through someone’s Amazon’s ‘Recommended For You’, it’s a brief insight into a parallel existence. The landscape footage keeps chopping and changing as if there’s a fold in their reality, or a kaleidoscope or even just a lot of mirrors completely obfuscating what you’re looking at. The video seems to lack orientation as you stroll around the barriered periphery, peering down with the glowing light from below.
Some other lights catch your eye and you realise there are smaller screens floating around with the same visuals playing. Displayed at varying heights and obscure orientations you can’t help but feel slightly disoriented. The moving imagery is almost dizzying but perhaps not enough to make your head spin. The bright blues and greens, polished products and excited voice all seem to pierce through the otherwise uninhabited liminal space of the construction site. Eventually you gather your thoughts: What is this thing selling? Products? A lifestyle? A service? What does Egyptian cotton have to do with SEO results? Is this even selling anything? Or is it proposing a connection between these obscure items might exist? Eventually you ponder on the idea that maybe your reality is driven by screens, products and algorithms. You chuckle to yourself as the voice sarcastically punts its own social capital ranking. It echoes in the background as you exit and absentmindedly re-apply your Clarins Lip Comfort Oil enriched with pure plant oils.
Process:
For What Happens Next I've been working on this installation that is planned to be installed in the Media Commons on 13 December. It's a video installation exploring identity, consumerism & late capitalism.
What i've envisioned is a large screen lying flat on the ground with a barrier around it. The space is dressed to look like a semi-construction space. There will also be hopefully x4 smaller tablet screens hanging with cables from the ceiling. The video playing on all screens will take the shape of a type of satirical advertisement trying to sell something to me, or at least trying to manipulate me into buying something. The idea originally sprung from looking at the strange digital collages made on websites like Aliexpress and Alibaba of these digitally printed vinyl floors one can buy. There seems to be endless options of these available and they attempt to portray some kind of alternate existence to our modern day. I particular like the botched and mis-proportioned collages these images use and want to recreate that effect.