Trans-cending to the Void

“The posthuman predicament is such as to force a displacement of lines of demarcation between structural differences, or ontological categories, for instance between the organic and the inorganic, the born and the manufactured, flesh and metal, electronic circuits and organic nervous systems” – Rosi Braidotti, The Posthuman

Hallidonto’s visual language depicts the body’s full assimilation into the bio-capital, the suffering of soul, the fight for flesh. Piperidou’s work is a visual codex of the western ideological power construct “capitalism”.

“This dystopian reflection of the bio-genetic structure of contemporary capitalism” – Rosi Braidotti, The Posthuman

The juxtaposition of Piperidou’s work the “system machines” place the body as a prisoner to the system. Hara deconstructs the human form into an anthropomorphic element to challenge the viewer’s perception of reality: the forms are organic, so merely signs of the human presence are present. This abstraction of these forms take on a sadomasochistic element. Hara has brought her “system machines” to challenge the viewer from their initial reading of the object.

Hallidonto’s cyborgs are consumed by the system devoid of humanity, testimony to the struggle of organic life within. As cyborgs they suffer existential despair of their organic past, their humanity stripped.

Piperidou surgically extracts these narratives by deconstructing their language to reconstruct a visual meta-narrative, thereby creating a new world within a world. The human being is the main motif of her work, the figure depicted in a state of psychological trauma, bound by the chains of society; the work harbours a psycho-sexual malaise of the pleasure principle.

Hallidonto’s symbolic nature displays a Freudian element of the uncanny, this cyborg being, though devoid of a humanistic image we relate to, the viewer is challenged with the notion of the residual self-image. Within this brave new form lingers the ghost of humanity. The compositions depict the cyborgs in life situations, they present the past, the future, birth, sorrow, family, life, death.

Hallidonto and Piperidou’s image of dystopia coalesce the struggle of humanity. Bound by our language, betrayed by our flesh, subordinate to power. Their works are a coded visual metaphor of what it means to be human.

© 2016, Graeme Gerard Halliday (Hallidonto)