GENERAL ANAESTHESIA

2019, DELFI, MALMØ, SWEDEN

UNDERCURRENT: 55MIN, SOUND INSTALLATION

MUSIC ROLL / MONKEY / BARREL ORGAN: 80CM x 152CM, IMAGE TRANSFER ON ALUMINIUM, ENGRAVING

THE SOUND OF SEDATION: DIMENSIONS VARIABLE, STEEL, MUSIC ROLL, CHLORINE, ENAMEL PAINT

GENERAL ANAESTHESIA (PERFORMANCE): 30MIN, THREE PERFORMERS, BARREL ORGAN, ELECTRIC GUITAR, COWGIRL COSTUME, MADONNA MIC

The exhibition General Anaesthesia examines two visual communicators from our everyday lives, the emoji and the advertisement, as a symptom of political and societal structures molding our bodies and self-image. Through digital and analog manipulations of found images, sound, and objects, the works form a delirious network of aluminium billboards, barrel organ players, and cowboy aesthetics, while a refrain of violence and anger, sedated by sex appeal, PR strategies, entertainment, and two-dimensional smiles runs through the exhibition. Anesthesia (from Greek "without sensation”) is a state of controlled perception and awareness, which, in the context of the exhibition, works as an analogy between the prescribed mechanics of the barrel organ and our constructed desires erected by visual imagery, predicted by codes and algorithms. 

PHOTOS BY FILIP VEST