Osiris 25.01 - 22.02.2015
Real Fine Arts, New York
Osiris
2015archival inkjet print on duraflex
Osiris
2015rear projection on plexi, still
Osiris
2015mixed media
Growth
2015enamel paint on plastic, soil, LEDs, terra cotta urn, felt
Singularity
2015enamel paint on plastic, soil, LEDs, resin urn, felt
Fleur du mal
2015enamel paint on plastic, soil, LEDs, acrylic, resin urn, felt
Viaggro
2015enamel paint on plastic, soil, LEDs, terra cotta urn, felt
Pinkies
2015enamel paint on plastic
Free Choice
2015soot and varnish on wood veneer
Osiris
2015
hologram, still
Press Release:
It is too simple to holler the war cry of WW3 or Cold War 2
– the rise of the far right in Europe, the disenfranchisement of the
Black community with Ferguson, the sanctions heavily punishing the ruble
because of the Ukraine, the repeated threat of Islamic extremism – what
is actually happening is a cultural shift, a generational conflict from
older values to newer more evolutionary ones.
The evolutionary humans, the ones that can adapt to the
strains of capitalist realism and the dominance of political economy
over aesthetics, will be the ones that will survive. The rest will
unfortunately be suppressed, monitored, controlled and unable to
transmutate into the next genus of human beings from homo sapiens. They
will either self destruct, be destroyed or subdued – because their
extreme, even emotive freedom of expression will be nullified by the
political economy that demand humans merge more towards the machine
like computational power of technology.
The myth of Osiris says those who bear the cost can
assimilate with him and inherit the world with eternal life. The promise
that technology has given us for radical life extension means that
assimilation will be possible through, amongst other things, gene
therapy, cell replacement and intelligent prosthetics – human
enhancement that will give humans a greater chance to live for 100 to
150 years within the next 20 years. For those with more ideological
fantasies of a utopia born upon meritocracy, equality of opportunity,
norms outside of political economy – they will be relegated to
historical artifacts such as the death of communism and socialism.
The cull will be huge and expansive. Why this is so is
because whereas the hive mind protects communities by e.g. the sharing
of common values that for instance bring about greater trade and
exchange, individual nervous systems are physiologically unconnected. In
other words, people do not feel each other’s pain (of course there are
rare exceptions that are far from the norm). If an individual does not
feel the pain of others or their environment, they will have no problem
seeing them lost even if there are dire global consequences. Therefore,
if an individual chooses to drop out of the main flow of ideas and
exchange, the hive mind will let them drop – only dealing with them if
they threaten the peace with coercion. However this peace is a peace
predicated on conformity rather than freedom of expression. It is a
peace predicated on submission – a public mourning.
Osiris will not exclude anyone who wants to participate.
Within the remits of the technological afterlife there will be a
hierarchy in motion i.e. the wealth gap will not lessen, there may be
greater rights for women, the gay and trans communities,
disadvantaged groups but we are only free to join under the conditions
of political economy i.e. as representations or reproductions rather
than embodiments. Aesthetics then will be an historical relic as well –
it will be a symbol of a time when human communication could be
purposeless, useless, to no end which warranted its own extinction. The
test of time will decide all matters about longevity but the chances
will be the same. In this light, criticality is not a position of
privilege, it is actually an evolutionary atavism.