Installation including mixed media on canvas, film, sound and performance, 2021
Performances, video editing and mixed media on canvas by: Annie Goliath
Performance and Sound Design: Black Astronaut
Narrator's Voice: Nkuli Hepburn Zikalala
This installation is set in a future dystopia that is in a state of ecological collapse combined with an over-glorification of technology that has resulted in an increased loss of gender equality. This installation asks questions about gender equality and consciousness: Did gender equality exist in the past? Could AI ever possess consciousness? Could consciousness extend beyond the brain?
In part 2 of the science fiction artist's film that forms a part of this installation, the ghost of the main protagonist Pandora dances in the ruins of the palace of Knossos on the island of Crete, built by the ancient Minoan civilisation believed to be a historical example of a once, thriving partnership society. This reflects on the cultural historian Riane Eisler’s theory, which proposes that societies used to follow a primarily partnership model of civilisation but over time, this gave way to today’s largely dominator model of civilisation. The dominator model is based on the ranking of one gender over another relying on a top-down hierarchy that is extremely destructive while the partnership model is based on linking and equality. Overall, this installation explores notions of consciousness and highlights an exploitative lack of care towards women and nature – pervasive in this dystopian future and our present-day largely unsustainable, dominator model.
Notes
The archival film referenced in part 2, is the German silent film Pandora's Box (1929) directed by Austrian filmmaker Georg Wilhelm Pabst, that starred the actress Louise Brooks.
Pandora, 2021
Artist's film, 11 minutes, 45 seconds
Transmute, 2021
Detail of mixed media on canvas, 140 x 120 cm
Transmute, 2021
Mixed media on canvas, 140 x 120 cm
Pandora's Box, 2021
Installation shot 1
Pandora's Box, 2021
Installation shot 2
Detail of In-between Boundaries, 2021
Mixed media on canvas
Pandora, 2021
Artist's film
Behind the Veil, 2021
Periodic Performance
In part 4 of the artist's film that forms part of this installation, the words that Pandora sings (who is commanded to be killed by the AI robot Blue_10010101), are derived from collaging together snippets of several, strikingly similar reported near-death experiences from historical and present-day sources. These reports of near-death experiences traverse different cultures, age groups, continents and timeframes. The ultimate nature of these experiences are strongly debated. Some of the reports include veridical perception confirmed by witnesses, which make these experiences harder to explain away as mere hallucinations of a dying brain. During the exhibition, the character Pandora performed periodically during part 4 of the film. Combining influences taken from the history of drone, jazz and experimental music to form the composition, Pandora's sung words echo these collective 'memories' of an arguably otherworldly realm of consciousness that exists in-between or beyond the confines of linear time.