Jon Rafman at the Zabludowicz Collection, Camden

Overview

Throughout the exhibition screens, proximity and distance are all used very ambitiously. Varying from a large projection to a small booth with a sliding door, which only two people can fit. From sitting in a ball pit and looking up at the screen with headphones on to straddling a massage chair and looking down with the speakers built into the chair. From standing with an Oculus Rift strapped to your head to lying down on a water bed watching the screen above you. As a whole everything worked incredibly smoothly in terms of the concepts, continuity and general atmosphere.

It became apparent as I went through the exhibition that the viewing context was as much important as the films being shown, maybe more so.

All of the films highlight our growing connection to a world that is ultimately intangible away from a screen. The satisfaction and the current desirability of ‘followers’, ‘subscribers’  and ‘highest scores’ enhances this attachment. Self worth finally has numbers. Growing up alongside the building use and increased access to the internet, I feel an emotional reaction to some of the points raised. The idea that our subconscious memory retains all the imagery that we see. The levels of anonymity we can have, do seem to shape peoples actions. A screen is a mask if needed.

Not that I personally feel that technology and the internet is aimed for disaster, it is still a very young medium, but I feel that Rafman’s work touches on very truthful aspects of today’s society in .

It did feel as though it was less about the social side and more like the idea is you could get the same satisfaction from being apart from people, strange and unusual fetishes, porn and connections with people you might not be able to talk to are made available, the idealising of the freedom with no judgement is contrasted quickly when watching ‘still life’ the scenes of desktops littered with molding fast foods, cigarrette butts and drooping sagging cushions, the strange contraptions people have made to make viewing screens easier whilst lying down.

Details from a few pieces:

Neon Parallel 1996

“spider_: Your impressions are fresh in a way that you will remember all your life or instantly forget.” – Neon Parallel 1996

If I had to sum up the key aspects of Rafman’s work, it would be with the film Neon Parallel 1996. It was the last piece I watched before leaving the exhibitions, it is possible that contributes to the significance.

The film centers around a female protagonist that seems to be obsessed with moving forward, evolving, into a higher state of mind. It so happens that this is through a technology that she is trying to obtain from the mysterious ‘spider_’. The film goes from in and out of virtual realities while the main character has this head gear on. I am assuming that the head gear is an idea taken from the concept of an Oculus Rift, due to it being effectively used in Rafmans interactive piece ‘Sculpture Garden (Hedge Maze)’.

‘Oculus wants to make it possible to experience anything, anywhere, through the power of virtual reality.’ – https://www.oculus.com/

mixes of digitally generated landscapes, source imagery, on location film.

Still Life (Betamale) (Ball Pit)

Ball pit with no shoes

Imagery that make you feel sick, pornographic cartoons, but you don’t feel as uncomfortable as you should do in a public space, because you are submerged in a space.

You can’t quite keep still though, when someone moves in or out of the ball pit, the whole scenario becomes unbalanced and turbulent. You struggle back to the surface, feeling bad that you knock some of the plastic white balls onto the floor outside that the attendants have to throw back in. Knowing it’s not quite in your control you soon forget and continue to watch the screens that are tilted down towards you.