Files on PHANTOM
A downloadable project
PHANTOM is my extended reality-infused digital art project about mental health disintegration, showcased as a solo exhibition at Bubblegum Gallery
Placing Black youth, extended reality infusions, and commentary on the #kulture at the forefront of the project, PHANTOM is a display, through digital art, of some of my meditations, dissections, and perceptions of the darkness within mental illness. It is a project about the complexity of the intangible, and constructs and realities concerning the minds. In PHANTOM, I point to ghosts’ intangibility, invisibility, haze, haunting nature, the common dismissal and denouncement of their existence, and their illusion of appearing living but being dead, which I liken to some of the thoughts and emotions produced by certain mental disorders and states. I explore ways of visualizing the frail feeling of being comatose and being a weak spectator, loosely watching (sometimes acknowledging) the events of your life happen to you . . .
Much of the production of PHANTOM took place at the Bubblegum Gallery studio, under Bubblegum Club's production-based artist residency program - of which I was the fifth recipient. Preceding artists selected for this residency program include Muofhe Manavhela and Tzung-Hui Lauren Lee. My month-long residency (September 2021) concluded with a month-long solo exhibition at Bubblegum Gallery (October 2021) to showcase PHANTOM. Because of the pervasiveness of extended reality interactions in PHANTOM, it is a project that required in-person engagement.
Files on PHANTOM is somewhat of an archive of this very special project and exhibition. The downloadable document that is attached - uhm... somewhere on this page - is a thorough outline of PHANTOM's production process, a dissection of the themes and messages in the artworks, and a site for accessing demos for some of the artworks that form PHANTOM . . .
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GHOSTS AND THE MENTAL
Phantoms. Ghosts. Apparitions. Frightening figments of the mind.
Meditating on the nebulous ambling dead, how they are popularly conceived and depicted, and what they signify was what inspired my way of conceptualizing, creating, and showcasing this interactive project that chronicles behaviour and the mind. PHANTOM spotlights some of the complex, haunting, and confusing emotions and mental states that can be experienced when enduring mental illness and other stresses and strains concerning the mind.
" PHANTOM's artistic enunciation is rooted in the experiential exploration of mental health disintegration and affective manifestations of neuro-divergency. What Null's work does through PHANTOM, is fabricate speculative spaces to be in experiential consideration or meditation with mental health disintegration as a type of haunting or state of being haunted. "
Lindi Mngxitama
Bubblegum Club : PHANTOM Press Release
I explored ways of visualizing the frail feeling of being emotionally comatose and being a weak spectator, loosely watching (sometimes acknowledging) the events of your life happen to you. I point to ghosts’ intangibility, invisibility, haze, haunting nature, the common dismissal and denouncement of their existence, and their illusion of appearing living but being dead, which I liken to some of the thoughts and emotions experienced when enduring certain mental disorders and states . . .
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DARK COMEDY
In PHANTOM, unexpectedness and shock are provoked by juxtaposing seemingly lighthearted visuals with (or concealing) morbid messaging. This absurdity places dark humour as a large theme within the project. It is used as a tool to casually address uncomfortable topics, and as a way of signifying the often humour-based masking of depressing situations, normally as an emotional coping mechanism.
PHANTOM features instances of making light of subject matter that is generally considered serious or painful to discuss, such as substance abuse, self-harm, depression, and suicide ideation - which are all referenced in various ways in PHANTOM. Writer Wylie Sypher says: “To be able to laugh at evil and error means we have surmounted them." While I do agree with this in some ways, much of the cloaking of “evils” - much of the downplaying of the grim underlying messages in PHANTOM - does not promise any conquering of misery, nor are they intended to. They conclude with pessimism. They are raw portrayals of suffering, very lightly coated in comedy . . .
" With shocking images and deep colours, I was, in equal measure, disturbed and awed by every piece [in the gallery]. I wholeheartedly agree with her – [Aluta Null] does not shy away from the dark stuff. "
Leilah Bhyat
Nota Africa interview article: A Genuine Artist – Aluta Null
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EXTENDED REALITY
Extended reality in PHANTOM was used as a tool to juxtapose conflicting ideas and as a metaphor for latent thoughts and emotions.
I overlayed conceptually-inverse digital depictions on the physical works in the 90s-sitcom-styled living room installation in Bubblegum Gallery. This thus allowed me to showcase the same object in a completely different light, as was one of the large ideas in PHANTOM: perception and perspective playing a significant role in mental illness. Extended reality in PHANTOM exposes, traps, and reflects things. It overlays and overwhelms. In some sense, extended reality not only facilitated displaying the haunting, but it also became the phantom itself. Intangible. Here one minute. Gone the next . . .
" [Aluta's] ability to find the link between body and machine becomes critical when we think about technological advancements, and how these advancements continue to reshape the human form. "
Janice Phiri
City Press interview article : PHANTOM Exhibition Brings Ghosts of Mental Illness to Life
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DEAD THINGS
The following is extracted from CYBER CEMETERY, the exposition of my DEAD THINGS theory
Central to DEAD THINGS is meditating on the longevity of technological objects, data, and cyber systems. DEAD THINGS, is generally used when speaking of digital data, and old and broken gadgets that are considered obsolete. In the context of XR, DEAD THINGS very specifically refers to old, outdated, and broken (nonfunctioning) physical devices. I re-think uses and conceptions of these “dead things” to think of interesting ways to engage with ignored and completely unusable systems and gadgets. DEAD THINGS centralizes the gadgets in ways that they not normally are. The creator and viewer are making a spectacle of the gadgets. This dynamic is made more profound when considering that viewers are pointing their smartphone cameras at the gadgets in order to see its new “living” form. A functioning television, for example, is typically appreciated as a screen that displays visuals unassociated to it. When it no longer does this, its value dies along with its service. However, through DEAD THINGS, the old and dusty nonfunctioning television is positioned in a way that it never was before in our common settings. It is no longer an ignored broken device known for previously displaying media and drawing focus to the visual subjects. Instead, it has the subject now. Though inactive, it is the “on-screen” star before an audience and smartphone camera lenses.
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MEDIA COVERAGE
Thank you to all the people and platforms who covered me and PHANTOM online <3
- This Audio Is Visual interview article by Tshepiso Moropa: The Null Method
- Nota interview article by Leilah Bhyat: A Genuine Artist - Aluta Null
- Bubblegum Club video profile interview: Bubblegum Gallery Presents PHANTOM a Solo Exhibition by Aluta Null
- Nota video profile interview by Aqil Variava and Matthew Brooks: Introducing: Aluta Null
- This Audio Is Visual exhibition opening video by Andy Mkosi: PHANTOM by Aluta Null
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