“The spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people, mediated by images.”

 

Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle

 

Supported by the writings of philosopher Guy Debord, Hyper Paradise investigates “the spectacle” of identity as the primary product of society.  The aim of this is to critique a vicarious society defined by spectacle. Through the use of portraiture, role-play and satire, the work simulates a separate world of spectacle where identities are formed and projected as a parody of society’s focus.

 

Hyper Paradise presents a series of pop culture warriors who are an amalgamation of stereotypes, archetypes and clichés. Their heightened paradise, idealised and glamorised, projects desire, youth and beauty. The satirised images reveal a thin reality. Beneath the veneer, is the ordinary, and the overwhelming desire for the extraordinary. The works suggest we create and control a separate world through the spectacle, but in doing this we become further removed from our own lives.

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