This digital work has been created for the exhibition DISCO AT THE END OF THE UNIVERSE, which is inspired by The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams. The exhibition text reads:
Amid climate collapse, rising authoritarianism and the slow crumble of liberal uncertainties, DISCO AT THE END OF THE UNIVERSE dares to offer art as antidote: passion, celebration and rebellion in response to a world feeling out of control.
In The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Gnab Gib is the end of the universe – a reverse Big Bang. Using this as an opportunity to interrogate ideas raised in the classic comic sci-fi novel, I envisage our idea of the universe to in fact be the internal space of a celestial being, whose bodily fluids and organs fizzle with and engage in a constantly mutating entanglement.
The video is created from the internal digitisation of the body of Roy, after I painted him.
Now in the final stages of the reversal of the Big Bang from which the Universe emanated, we finish our meals at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe and move next door – to a Disco where we can dance away the last few moments of our eternity.
In our reimagining, The Disco at the End of the Universe has large picture windows providing panoramic views of Gnab Gib as it plays out. We can catch a glimpse of the celestial being’s astronomical abdominals as they merge with the galactic glutes and blend with the cosmic scrotum as we kiss our heavenly arses goodbye.
Sound track is Shine by Slowdive. A somatic 3AM sound for Gnab Gib.