Permanent Distraction is the first solo exhibition of Rafaël Rozendaal’s work in the UK and his most expansive installation to date. Rafaël is a Dutch-Brazilian visual artist who makes abstract art for a digital age.
From the bio provided by the Site Gallery:
The exhibition presents the most extensive installation of Rozendaal’s websites series in a new immersive environment. Existing and newly produced websites have come together in a commissioned, site-specific installation. The websites are shown as twelve, floor to ceiling projections, filling the space with constantly generating abstract colour, movement and gesture.
Permanent Distraction forces us to confront the slippage between our physical and digital realities, bringing bodies physically into the space of the internet. Rozendaal pushes us to think about physical interaction with the internet, confronting what we think of as real, and what IRL (in real life) means when we now spend so much of our lives online.
Rozendaal’s websites have distinctive qualities unlike any other art medium, they are publicly accessible, unique objects that exist all over the world simultaneously. In the gallery or on an iPhone screen, they are one and the same, websites ever changing and generating, sometimes featuring and projecting out large in the gallery.
I popped to the exhibition on the 28th with Nick and it was quite crowded but once I got a seat it felt quite serene and tranquil. The space had four seats in the middle where I felt compelled to sit down and soak in the ambience.
Sat there watching the different images coalesce and it felt like I was part of a screen saver.
Some of the pictures took by yours truly:
Conclusion: Permanent distractions is a misleading title for me because despite the exhibitions infinite possibilities for distraction human beings are not permanent and have to confront their realities on a daily basis.
If distractions cannot be permanent they can however be more prevalent in today’s society, now that we live in a world of screens.
Is our internal monologue just a newsfeed to be scrolled through with notifications regarding the right course of action taking precedent over abstraction of thought?
Instead of gazing at the heavens and feeling insignificant we gaze into the abstraction of a monumental digital image engulfing our entire way of life and being.
Do we panic and resist or do we welcome this digital salve to soothe our fleshly wounds.
When you look into infinity does infinity look back at you?
Sat there with just questions in my mind on the crest of a digital wave of technology are we gazing into the horizon of our own demise or embracing a future where technology will provide a warm embrace.
Time will tell whatever happens there will always be distractions to guide us there permanent or otherwise.
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