November 16, 2015 |
Haunting films where alienated flaneurs traversed an ahistorical world of desert wastelands and urban carnage from computer games. This was Jon Rafman’s early work, but lately the Canadian artist’s videos have got a lot more abstract and weird: compelling montages of 4chan clips chronicling the fan fixations and fetishes that have blossomed online, from “furries”, adults who dress in animal costumes for sexual kicks, to the “crush fetish”, where everything from live sea creatures to melons are squished for the camera. Rafman’s forthcoming show at London’s Zabludowicz Collection is set to explore the bleed between subculture fantasies and real life, with virtual reality and videos in a claustrophobic installation.
What kind of online culture are you tackling in your new show?
“The installations are inspired by my obsession with troll caves – the environments in which people spend hours completely shut in on their computer. I see them as the borderlands between the virtual and the real.”
The troll caves in your films are often pretty gross – keyboards encrusted with fags and grease, or hemmed in by beer crates.
“I like the physicality of them. The tension between the abject and the materiality of the environment, in contrast to the seeming immateriality of virtual existence. I really like it when there’s a really virtuosic use to create an immersive screen experience. It’s simultaneously lazy but takes a huge amount of effort to create it.”
You’ve chronicled a real variety of subcultures – what ties them together for you?
“I’m investigating subcultures that are creating virtual worlds away from the screen. I like the anachronistic qualities that occur when you create a fantasy around the banality of the real world. I’m working on a new film and possible performance that uses the vernacular inspired by LARPing [live action role play] culture.”
What do the fetishes say about our desires now?
“I don’t see myself as a moralist and don’t believe in the conservative cultural degeneration perspective. They do reveal desires, as does any sort of obsession – it can be an acute representation of an anxiety that exists through society. It’s nothing new, just an extreme form.”
You’ve been described as a flaneur and an ethnographer, which suggest quite a distanced view of your material.
“It’s the famous quote by Nietzsche – if you stare long enough into the abyss, the abyss begins to stare back at you. I’m not part of these communities, I’m definitely a voyeur. I really do feel like the equivalent of wandering in a big city. You’re bombarded by sensations, fragmentary sensations that you receive. At the same time you’re not a complete outsider, there is a deep empathy towards what I’ve seen through my surfing. It’s oftentimes celebratory.”
Jon Rafman, Oct 1-Dec 20; Zabludowicz Collection, NW5
Text by Skye Sherwin, taken from Issue 42 of 10 Men
