BY JULLIA KIM
The idea for subterraneans, started as a poem which I wrote to encapsulate the disparate ideas at play in the space of banner ads: the random juxtapositions of interfaces streaming instantaneous information, the interruption of public and private spaces, the porn industry at the forefront of this technology, and how our senses filter the inundation to stitch a comprehensive narrative together.
On average, people spend 8 hours of their day in front of digital interfaces, navigating this virtual terrain. If all technology is an extension of our psychic or physical self, then what is the reality of our existence in the World Wide Web?
Our limits to know the world, are our own limits. I wanted to expand those limits, moving beyond the conscious into the unconscious to find insight on how to navigate this new territory.
Robyn Davidson, an Australian writer best known for her book Tracks, about a 1,700-mile trek across the deserts of west Australia writes in her Quarterly Essay on nomads:
One could say that the Dreaming is a spiritual realm which saturates the visible world with meaning; that it is the matrix of being; that it was the time of creation; that it is a parallel universe which may be contacted via the ritual performance of song, dance and painting; that it is a network of stories of heroes – the forerunners and creators of contemporary man.
I invited 8 visionaries whose works deal with play and exploring the edges of dreaming and waking, public and private, past and future to respond to my poem in hopes to create a songline of dreams, the beginnings of a map to the ever expanding virtual landscape that incorporates the unconscious.
Dreaming
the world awake:
A collide-oscope
distorted over many retellings.
Interfaced situations,
reflecting patterns,
creating the medium to
define your role,
a place for everything and
everything in its place,
softening the limits,
of explicit rigidity,
closing the gap between
thought and action.
ARTISTS:
KELLI MILLER
Kelli shares the perspective of quantum physicists who attest that we construct our own understandings of the world. Navigating between the past and present, real and imagined, her work invites viewers to believe in the power of imagination to create a very real future. “Everyday struggles are the stage, each of us is a player and the setting is floating all around us.”
MOMO
MOMO’s bold strokes of color and shapes, experimenting in chance and automation, embrace the opportunity in unintended consequences. His colorful explosions inject flow into the humdrum hustle of the urban landscape. With the world as his canvas, he travels extensively, incorporating his experiences into a masterful iconography that translates across surfaces and planes, inviting people to play.
Originally from San Francisco, he’s known for tagging the width of Manhattan, faking a New Yorker magazine cover, building a totem pole in the East River, writing a computer script which makes his art for him and collaborating with Y-3. Now he’s on the road again into the unknown, painting the world MOMO.
ELTONO
Eltono’s ephemeral interventions propose a kind of visual rest to the frenetic transience of urban space. His signature icon, a tuning fork, draws the cacophony of ubiquitous advertisements and signs into a harmonic convergence, lifting up dilapidated structures and inviting a quiet dialogue with it. His visual tones play the city of Madrid where he is currently based. His work has been on view at the Tate Modern in London, across 150 doors in a Spanish Village, gallery shows in 12 countries, the 2002 Liverpool Biennial, and Spanish Arco art fair.
Eltono started producing graffiti in 1989 as Otone – a simplification of the word automne, Autumn- and as part of the prestigious crew GAP, he specialized in bombing the train line that connects Paris with his native suburb, Cergy-Pontoise, executing simple and legible pieces. When he moved to Madrid, he changed his name to Eltono (which means ‘tone’ in Spanish).
ELASTICBRAND
Upon reading the first line of the supplied poem “Dreaming the World Awake”, we decided to draw inspiration from creative individuals and their real encounters with people in their lives as they started to define their goals and pursue their dreams. Drawing from social networking culture, we created a framework for ‘user’ generated content, asking a wide range of creatives, including artists, musicians, designers and performers to submit to us both a childhood photo and a quote that marked a turning point in their creative lives. The final result is a juxtaposition of the photos with these quotes that exposes the misunderstanding, fear and discouragement that comes with a life in the creative fields . The results are both funny and sad but in all cases, we think, motivating.
-Arjen Noordeman & Christie Wright.
ANDREW DEROSA
Andrew explores the tension between the unconscious and conscious using process-driven self-directed inquires called “play”: “play” informs the “work”, and the “work” gives the “play” rigor. Inspired by aboriginal paintings of dreams and patterns in nature, Andrew uses the language of cartography and scientific diagrams in an exercise to map the invisible.
ZOSEN
Zosen’s shamanic enthusiasm delves into ritual, folklore, and symbolism to develop his own iconography and art practice that critiques the current social and political climate. His work builds a playful narrative with abstract characters and symbols that dance across cityscapes boldly breaking rules and expanding the dialogue with the city.
Born in Buenos Aires, Zosen developed his art practice on the streets since he was 11 and in 2001 became a long time member of Barcelona’s infamous ONG (Ovejas NeGras or ‘Black Sheep’) crew. Zosen continues to expand his creative practice with performance and collaborations with artists across the globe and he is co-founder of the street-wear label, “Animal Bandido” with designer Clàudia Font.
RIAH BUCHANAN
Riah’s poetic statements unfold to explore how our minds generate and maintain meaning. With perspective as a driving force behind her work, Riah creates an experiential moment, where opposites mingle and create something new, and she’s not afraid to sit between logic and abstraction to seek out meaning in the experience. For her, mystery is an opportunity to lead you to look at something in a new way.
She is currently a lecturer at Otis College of Art and Design in Los
Angeles.
AARON PETERMAN
What at first looked like an innocuous pattern, upon closer examination reveals a phantasmagoria of a subversive universe of pushing and pulling bodies and the force of projectiles. Since it’s emergence as a literary practice, pornography has been a product of new regulations and a desire for knowledge, the black sheep sibling of innovation and enlightenment that tests the boundaries of acceptable forms of expression in the main stream and addresses the way we think, represent and regulate.
With the adult entertainment industry at the forefront of banner ad technology, this piece is an homage to the dark underbelly of modernity.
