Sometimes you still share and react. You send an emoji of your head exploding. Horror, outrage, disbelief? A mix of feelings that come with your daily scrolling. More like doomscrolling, because the content, to put it mildly, can be pretty unpleasant. You shouldn’t be doing it. “A psychologist says no”. Don’t get upset, limit unnecessary stimuli. Meanwhile, the brain blows up. We’re all walking around with exploding heads. Figuratively, and unfortunately, literally. We watch exploding heads. Brutal and grotesque scenes hit us whether we want them to or not. Images that are post-truth, manipulated, of shady origin, or machine-generated — none of this even matters. You sneak a peek when you open your phone to check messages from friends. Social life is sitting right next to “gore-infotainment” on your messenger app. Constant podcasts, a stream of words and comments in the background of your daily grind. Elections and 24-hour war. Compilations of exploding heads. Always late, always off-balance. After a while, you get used to it, numb, and start laughing. Laughing through tears. Bitter laughter. Sadness.
For his first show in Leipzig, Ed Young presents a minimalist exhibition, “Works of Insignificance”, featuring film, neon, objects, and a mural. The centrepiece is a film composed of found footage from old and contemporary films, all depicting scenes of exploding heads. Played 24 hours a day, it is displayed alongside other objects that serve as references to violent realities.
Ed Young is a visual artist whose work can best be described as disturbing. The themes he explores, like capitalism, pop culture, media language, racism, and the condition of the individual in the face of political and social reality, are locally rooted in South Africa but also resonate globally. Young uses a bold visual language, creating hyper-realistic sculptures, neon signs, videos, and paintings that reference contemporary visual culture, the media, and online content. He often employs black humour, irony, sarcastic remarks, and provocative elements to comment on the current state of society.
Barcelona, 10.2024
Michalina Sablik
