Jon Rafman: Selected Works

Overview

Artist and filmmaker Jon Rafman explores the paradoxes of modernity. Simultaneously a celebration and a critique of present-day experience, his work highlights how our technical instruments and other forms of mediation can estrange us from ourselves. At SB13, Jon Rafman presents three sculptures from The Swallower Swallowed series (2016), alongside the video installation of Erysichthon (2015).

His sculptures Dog/Lion, Ram/Sea Lion and Rhino/Bear (2016) depict animals frozen in the middle of an unlikely meal, halfway through swallowing another, much larger animal whole. The swallower and the swallowed have no connection in the food chain; their interaction here is both a violent and erotic gesture of consumption—an analogy for our contemporary condition, in which our virtual lives impinge on our physical states of being.

Erysichthon (2015), named after the mythological Greek king cursed with insatiable hunger, echoes a parallel note, opening with a scene of a metal cube being engulfed by magnetic putty. Made up of images and video clips Rafman found online, the work is narrated by a robotic voice, which at points adopts different voices that tell of their individual thoughts, musings and frustrations. Reminiscent of stream of consciousness narratives, the video ties in Erysichthon (2015), named after the mythological Greek king cursed with insatiable hunger, echoes a parallel note, opening with a scene of a metal cube being engulfed by magnetic putty. Made up of images and video clips Rafman found online, the work is narrated by a robotic voice, which at points adopts different voices that tell of their individual thoughts, musings and frustrations. Reminiscent of stream of consciousness narratives, the video ties in with Rafman’s sculptures, embodying the desire to devour and be devoured—an exploration of today’s culture of consumption and consumption of culture.

This project was part of Sharjah Biennial 13.