A nude determine with frazzled hair lies in mattress, the sickly coloured linens draped throughout their higher physique. Fingertips glowing pink as if infected, the character grasps a navy cellphone and stares catatonically on the display screen. A vibrant infinity image is superimposed on the scene, rising as limitless loops of vitality and mesmerization from the system.
The all-too-relatable portrait is a part of a collection of recent works by Robin F. Williams capturing the all-powerful techno-dystopia we’re collectively barreling towards. Extrapolating on the methods humanity and machines merge, the Brooklyn-based artist presents a mystical imaginative and prescient of one other world infused with popular culture and artwork historical past.
“The Merminator,” for instance, combines two characters of the ’80s—a cyborg murderer and a Disney princess—to kind a metallic bot perched on a stone because it, like Ariel, friends towards a world it presumably longs to be a part of and but received’t be accepted in.
There’s additionally “I Am Not a Robotic,” a symmetric piece that takes cues in composition and coloration palette from the spiritualist abstractions of Hilma af Klint. The portray additionally attracts from Boticelli’s “Madonna of the Pomegranate,” which presents the titular fruit as a visible metaphor for the human coronary heart. In Williams’ iteration, although, the topic is the cellphone, radiating outward instead of the life-giving supply.
Below the becoming title Act Pure, the physique of labor plunges into the uncanny with out settling into the unusual state of issues. The too-sleek, frictionless world the artist portrays exudes the attract of know-how alongside the immense horror it elicits.
P·P·O·W presents Act Pure as a pop-up at Frieze’s No. 9 Cork Avenue in London, the place it’s on view by October 24. Discover extra of Williams’ work on Instagram.
