Xaromantor [2024]

installation / UHD + HD videos looping / duration variable / colour / sound / salvaged smartphones / salvaged PVC pipes / Poundland selfie sticks / power supply / charging cables

Videos

Statement

Influencers who make videos with titles like “why you’re not growing on social media” are the tastemakers who present to us their ability to commune with the mysterious algorithm; they tell people what kind of content we should make. Creative production is being hijacked by the needs of advertisers; the systematic approach they promote is leading us to a position where all content becomes shallow, safe and repetitive. In Sirens, Back end, I listen attentively to their advice but deliberately misinterpret it.

These videos are then displayed in their natural habitat: the smartphone. The installation employs second-hand donated smartphones, nestled in sweatshop-produced selfie sticks, which in turn are bonded to tentacle-like, salvaged PVC pipes. Using these objects, this work brings the material consequences of content creation into the gallery space.

Touch Glass, Lewisham Arthouse

Bits & Bytes, New Glasgow Society

Performance Machines, IB Art London

Gradient Descent - Gossamer Fog