Kingdom Come

"KC", Full HD single channel video, 17.42min, projector or screen, 2012
"Herrenabend" (gentleman´s evening), inkjetprint, 84x60cm, 2012
"I love you so much", 8 digital prints, 25x19 cm, Baryt paper, framed, Museum Glass, 2012

 

The violent clashes and looting that took place in London in 2011 and the fictitious development of areas in the urban belt along the M25 described by J.G. Ballard in his dystopian novel Kingdom Come constitute the backdrop for the works produced in 2012.

 

The video KC deals with the remains of the world’s first, oval-banked, motor racing circuit – ever since a symbol of speed, violence and a life of glamour on the edge. In elegiac silence, it attests to its disintegration, on the one hand, and at the same time bears out its incorporation into the current structure of a locality characterized by megastores, parking lots and Mercedes Benz showrooms.

 

The nocturnal street scene image entitled Herrenabend (gentlemen´s evening) refers to the London riots, but on closer inspection defies classification of any kind.

 

Eight product photography images of high quality flat screen television sets are also displayed. Considering such equipment was the most coveted booty apart from trainers during the London riots, this image sequence – emotionally charged with the song I love you so much – reinforces its ongoing almost religious significance in our consumer society.

 

Combining the video work, the nocturnal scene and the small product photographs leads to associations that, in interaction with text fragments from Ballard’s novel, create a space in between documentation and fiction, the shown and the not-shown, where questions of shifting social values and of violence and its origins and forms, and their medial representation can be discussed.