Louis de Villiers -
THE PREOCCUPIED LIVES OF ISLANDS

14.03.17 – 28.03.17
Solo Exhibition at
Kalashnikovv Gallery,
Johannesburg

“We live together, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and in all circumstances, we are by ourselves. The martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone. Embraced, the lovers desperately try to fuse their insulated ecstasies into a single self-transcendence; in vain. By its very nature, every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude. Sensations, feelings, insights, fancies—all these are private and, except through symbols and at second hand, incommunicable. We can pool information about experiences, but never the experiences themselves. From family to nation, every human group is a society of island universes.” - Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception

For the past two decades, the prevalence of cellphone use has moved steadily from accessory to absolutely integral to everyday existence. Coupled with globalization and advances in technology over the same timeline, humans are now more connected than ever. Whether through easy access to a world of information through the internet, or the sharing of experiences, thoughts and opinions via social media platforms, the modern human now becomes a citizen not to a specific country or geographic position, but of a much larger online civilization governed by this pooled information.

As online etiquette is still being established and felt-out, it is becoming evident that our online personas are beginning to hold more social-currency than real-life experiences and actions. We validate our existence through the capturing and sharing of ourselves using our phones as conduits for social interaction – ultimately as keys to this wider online community.

However, despite this pooling of experiential information, humans as a community are becoming more and more isolated by this drive to craft online personas – as more emphasis is placed on an online existence and validation, we pour more of our time and energy into our online relationships than our real-life ones. 

By creating an isolated jungle utopia, I aim to illustrate how this online life can and does separate us from one another. Despite their lush surroundings, subjects are still engrossed by an online existence – as they delve further into their devices, they become less interested in the community surrounding them and more so in the conceptual community of the Globe. In such isolation, the question is also raised, WHAT are these subjects actually doing on their phones? What platforms are they on? What information are they absorbing? Do they share their lives or simply consume the experiences of the outside world? Simply by the presence of cell phones in this isolated community, they are doomed to have their attention divided and gaze set not on their immediate community but on an online one. The invasion of cellphones in this community may connect them to the ‘outside world’ but disconnects themselves from one another.

This concept is fully realized in the creation of the ‘Cellular Garden’ series – a multi-panel polyptych of a jungle-scene consisting of this community. Multiple individual artworks make up the greater scene, meaning that each artwork will be sold individually or in sections. Through this format, the polyptych is ultimately doomed to never be fully united as the works are sold off piece-by-piece – acting as a visual metaphor about how we as communities are also doomed to never truly be united.