Gated Commune

2018 - Film & Video (Film & Video)

8:13 minutes

Camel Collective

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Gated Commune , a video by Camel Collective, is a critique of the complex, and often obtuse, language used to describe sustainable development projects. To construct a future scenario in the imagination of the viewers, a voiceover narrates two perspectives of futuristic practices in architecture and social behaviors: neo-primitives on one hand, who value organic materials and design based on geometric forms, and futurists on the other hand, who value organic forms and computer design. In this constructed universe, both perspectives lead to societal structures that malfunction due to issues with their design, which are not in line with their users’ needs. There is a so-called free play only in assigned spaces; there are no places to rest, and no corridors or lobbies where serendipitous encounters can happen. Instead of well-designed order, there is chaos everywhere. Sourcing imagery from various online sources, the artists visually collage still and moving images to construct this narrative. The work makes use of the complex branding language of these sustainable projects to demonstrate how inaccessible design can be, although it’s meant to be super accessible in its function. Gated Commune criticizes the problematic approach of the anthropocene—which centers human experience as the core concern of contemporary life—and invites the viewer to think about emerging technologies of sustainable development, and what their language means and who it really serves.

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Camel Collective comprises the artists Carla Herrera-Prats (Mexican, photographer and conceptual artist) and Anthony Graves (American, painter), who began working together in 2005 during a fellowship at the Whitney Independent Program. However, the origins and evolution of the collective has drastically changed over the last decade. First, it was a larger research and discursive group organized to question ideas around labor, affect, and collectivity. At the time, in the context of the Bush administration and the Iraq War, the group was primed with artists, along with a few architects, writers and curators developing their careers in political discourse and cultural opposition. Mapping a unique artistic trajectory, their agenda also interrogated the history of artist collaboration, and sought out projects to support artist’s rights and potential unionization of artists. It wasn’t until 2010 the group condensed to only Herrera-Prats and Graves, who have focused their individual practices under Camel Collective to address the problems of contemporary work and collaboration through performance, video, sculpture, and photography.

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Colors:

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• technology.n.01
• blueprint.n.01
• architecture.n.01
• sustainability.n.01
• development.n.01
• space.n.01