View of Harbor

2018 - Advanced Technology (Advanced Technology)

8:00 minutes

Jon Rafman


View of Harbor by Jon Rafman mines the latent cultural imaginary surrounding climate change and society’s collective death drive. In contrast with other recent works that aim to use VR or AR to visualize the impact of climate change, Rafman’s work instead presents the rising sea as an almost anthropomorphized foe, within which strange human-like bodies lurk as the viewer is swept into a kind of watery hellscape. This strong element of fantasy leads the viewer to wonder what type of wish fulfillment is at play—what desire for the museum to be inundated, for the existing social order to be washed away by the deluge?


Jon Rafman’s practice over the past decade has been marked by in-depth explorations of digital culture. Modeling himself as a kind of Benjamin-esque figure, Rafman has sought out, and immersed himself in, the marginal and ephemeral—from Google Street View images to vorarephilia. Gaming worlds have played a central role in these investigations, and Rafman has tackled the latent romanticism within these as well the “beta male” as a character type associated with gaming spaces—often self-reflexively using his own unconscious as source material. Through these developments, he has cast light on the seismic cultural shifts associated with the internet that paved the way for the dominance of platforms and the emergence of an internet-fueled right-wing.


Colors:



Related works sharing similar palette

7-headed Lalandau Hat
© » KADIST

Yee I-Lann

2020

7-headed Lalandau Hat by Yee I-Lann is an intricately woven sculpture evoking the ceremonial headdress worn by Murut men in Borneo...

Quiz: What’s Your Guilty Pleasure?
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Quiz: What's Your Guilty Pleasure? | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Viewpoints Kristina Flour via Unsplash November 11, 2021 It’s 2021 – and you’re constantly being told to be your best self! There’s that pile of books waiting to be read, countless browser tabs open with must-read articles, and a list of podcasts that are supposed to make you smarter...

Return the Stolen Artifact, But Keep the Museum Label
© » HYPERALLERGIC

Return the Stolen Artifact, But Keep the Museum Label Skip to content An empty pedestal of a seized looted artifact at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City (photo Erin L...

A Soldiers’ Garden #a
© » KADIST

Nguyen 'Quoc' Thành

2012

A Soldiers’ Garden by Nhà Sàn Collective is a night portrait series located in an army camp outside Hanoi...

Hikaru Fujii: Les nucléaires et les choses
© » KADIST

On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake on the North East coast of Japan generated a tsunami of exceptional force...

The ‘Dispatchwork’ Activations of Jan Vormann
© » HIGH FRUCTOSE

For more than a decade, Jan Vormann has used LEGOs to craft “dispatchwork” for centuries-old structures, public spaces across the globe, and other eroded areas...

Human Quarry
© » KADIST

Leslie Shows

Human Quarry is a large work on paper by Leslie Shows made of a combination of acrylic paint and collage...

Carla Zaccagnini, El presente, mañana (The present, tomorrow)
© » KADIST

Carla Zaccagnini, El presente, mañana (The present, tomorrow) Available to view from February 23, 2022, 10 am PST Carla Zaccagnini’s iconic lecture-performance El presente, mañana (2018) is newly produced as a finished video made exclusively for KADIST...

Programming The Studios 2019: An Interview with Lynn Yang
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Programming The Studios 2019: An Interview with Lynn Yang | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles March 14, 2019 By Selina Chong (519 words, two-minute read) The Studios is Esplanade’s longest running platform for supporting Singapore’s theatre scene...

She’s gone
© » KADIST

Jay Chung and Takeki Maeda

2009

Jay Chung and Q Takeki Maeda remake a clip from the 1970s they found on the internet, and without really changing this archive material, displace it by imitating the staging and the acting with scrupulous precision...

Another America — AI-Generated Photos from the 1940s and 50s
© » LENS CULTURE

Another America — AI-Generated Photos from the 1940s and 50s - AI-generated images by Phillip Toledano | Interview by Jim Casper | LensCulture Interview Another America — AI-Generated Photos from the 1940s and 50s Phil Toledano has often pushed the boundaries of photography to imagine the future; now he’s tapping into AI to create alternative histories, challenging our belief in any images at all...

CIAS Blends Sensibilities of Tattooing, Ancient Artists in His Paintings
© » HIGH FRUCTOSE

Carlos Mendes, who works under the name CIAS, is a painter and tattoo artist with a penchant toward ancient art history...

UK Museums Banned From Imposing Reproduction Fees After 70 Years
© » ARTLYST

In a groundbreaking verdict, the Court of Appeal has ushered in a significant transformation in the practices of UK museums concerning charging fees for reproducing historic artworks...

How can photography heal past trauma? Ask a friend
© » 1854 PHOTOGRAPHY

How can photography heal past trauma? Ask a friend - 1854 Photography Subscribe latest Agenda Bookshelf Projects Industry Insights magazine Explore ANY ANSWERS FINE ART IN THE STUDIO PARENTHOOD ART & ACTIVISM FOR THE RECORD LANDSCAPE PICTURE THIS CREATIVE BRIEF GENDER & SEXUALITY MIXED MEDIA POWER & EMPOWERMENT DOCUMENTARY HOME & BELONGING ON LOCATION PORTRAITURE DECADE OF CHANGE HUMANITY & TECHNOLOGY OPINION THEN & NOW Explore Stories latest agenda bookshelf projects theme in focus industry insights magazine ANY ANSWERS FINE ART IN THE STUDIO PARENTHOOD ART & ACTIVISM FOR THE RECORD LANDSCAPE PICTURE THIS CREATIVE BRIEF GENDER & SEXUALITY MIXED MEDIA POWER & EMPOWERMENT DOCUMENTARY HOME & BELONGING ON LOCATION PORTRAITURE DECADE OF CHANGE HUMANITY & TECHNOLOGY OPINION THEN & NOW All images © Sophie Russell-Jeffrey Collaborating with her childhood friend, Sophie Russell-Jeffrey was able to access the most difficult episodes of their past – and push her portraiture into raw new territory Sophie Russell-Jeffrey was born and raised in Towcester, a small East Midlands town of around 10,000 people where “everyone knows everyone’s business”...

Chircales, a screening presented by Jesse Lerner
© » KADIST

Chircales, a screening presented by filmmaker, curator, and writer Jesse Lerner Thursday, January 20, 2022, 7 pm PST The event will be live-streamed on Zoom...

Romain Best — Coulissements par frictions
© » SLASH PARIS

Romain Best — Coulissements par frictions — Frac île-de-france, le Plateau — Exposition — Slash Paris Connexion Newsletter Twitter Facebook Romain Best — Coulissements par frictions — Frac île-de-france, le Plateau — Exposition — Slash Paris Français English Accueil Événements Artistes Lieux Magazine Vidéos Retour Romain Best — Coulissements par frictions Exposition Installations, sculpture, techniques mixtes Romain Best, Coulissements par frictions, 2023 © Romain Best Romain Best Coulissements par frictions Encore 27 jours : 9 novembre 2023 → 7 janvier 2024 Présenté dans la Project Room du Plateau, Romain Best est né en 1995 à Lyon...

Photo collector and ophthalmologist William Tsiaras gives 500 works to Colby College Museum of Art in Maine - via The Art Newspaper
© » LARRY'S LIST

The Greek-American started acquiring photography for museums through his personal friendships with artists such as Lucas Samaras, Aaron Siskind and Harry Callahan...

Spacejunk Bayonne: La Belle Peinture group show
© » THE RE:ART

Spacejunk Bayonne: La Belle Peinture group show - The re:art Spacejunk Bayonne: La Belle Peinture group show Spacejunk Bayonne presents the group show La Belle Peinture ( The Beautiful Painting ) featuring international artists, masters of Pop Surrealism, whose works revisit old masters such as Caravaggio, those of the Dutch Golden Age and Flemish painting or Japanese print, yet through composition and narrative remain deeply relevant to our times...

MoMA Returned A Nazi-Looted Chagall To Its Heirs, And Garnered A Large Fee
© » ARTSJOURNAL

Quietly, After a $4 Million Fee, MoMA Returns a Chagall With a Nazi Taint - The New York Times Arts | Quietly, After a $4 Million Fee, MoMA Returns a Chagall With a Nazi Taint https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/12/arts/chagall-moma-return-over-vitebsk.html Share full article 25 Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT For years, “Over Vitebsk” occupied a central place in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, which spoke of Marc Chagall’s painting of his hometown in the Russian empire as an important part of its holdings...