This 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.
Having lived through the golden era of Disco, I’m dipping into one of the Bee Gees tracks from Saturday Night Fever called Stayin’ Alive. The lyrics seem particularly pertinent. This is a reflection on our (sometimes subversive) efforts and attempts to adapt and survive in new situations.
Like a snake undergoing ecdysis or perhaps the peeling of a scab, this work explores shedding of our skin as a condition of the body today, locating it as an act of transition, becoming, regeneration, and refusal.
Stayin’ Alive playfully embraces the imagery of replacing one’s own skin, with its raw vulnerability yet assured defensiveness, and navigates the uneasy tension between the intrinsic desire to evade capture through transformation and social media tech’s sinister demand for perpetual reinvention. Perhaps both are a response to our innate urge to stay alive.
Die alten Götter (the old gods) in this disco gallery were created by Mathias Vef. Here the conventional laws of physics are starting to be disrupted.
Music credits, sound track is a mash up of:
Bee Gees – Stayin Alive: Graymatter Remix (Grayson Rose – FKA Graymatter).
Bee Gees – Stayin Alive: Mozz ReFunk Remix.
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