Embracing Bauman’s state of liquid modernity, Obsidian Upset's artists play around with the mutable nature of identity, navigating and performing it in the realm where post-ironic femininity rules. writes Arina Barbuskova.
Installation views courtesy of Showpickle/DES BAINS
Amidst the array of chic boots, vintage purses and silver-adorned fingers gripping Peroni bottles (the usual set up for any Des Bains opening, really), a diagonally-placed pixelated screen peeks through. Flickering on it is a 20-minute tumblr-esque fever dream on the loop: Obsidian Upset.
In their psycho-sexual neo-noir directorial debut, the artists Lucia Farrow (b.2000) and Mila Rowyszyn (b.2000), fix their sarcastic female gaze upon Los Angeles’ apparent infatuation with perfection. As the title, appearing in the ornate font reminiscent of Capolla’s Priscilla poster (or the Blumarine logo), fades away, we meet our protagonist: a french-manicured blogger double-tapping on socials in her oddly impersonal bedroom when a mysterious delivery disrupts her routine. One iced matcha and a ‘wearing my obsidian necklace today <3 fuck mercury in retrograde’ post later, a deserted Californian landscape becomes a stage for her content creation photoshoot. ‘Wellness tips into horror; trust gives way to deception; phone screen melts, now liquid, obsidian in its reflective blackness, turning vanity into flowers’, writes Kollektiv Collective, a young curatorial power duo behind the show.
Installation views courtesy of Showpickle/DES BAINS
Co-founded by Pia Zeitzen and Sasha Shevchenko in 2019, the Kollektiv Collective focuses on exploring performativity and site-specificity as curatorial tools to transcribe the abstract into the visuals. The latter is strikingly emphasised within Obsidian Upset, which centres around the eponymous short debut, yet does not confine itself within it: the shiny obsidian liquid spills out of the silver screen and onto the floor, seamlessly connecting the hazy on-screen reality with the serene space of the second-floor Mayfair gallery.
Lucia Farrow and Mila Rowyszyn, Obsidian Upset, 2024, still
The narrative further unfolds on the gallery walls via the glossy works of LA and NY-based photographer Stolen Besos (b.1999), known for her dreamy yet lifeless portrayal of girls inhabiting elusive and seductive worlds, and in the words of Dazed ‘defining the ‘dissociative pout’ aesthetic of the new lobotomy-chic generation’. The unorthodox exploration of modern day girlhood is continued by the London-based artist, or, as stated in her Instagram bio ‘metaphysical surgeon’, Elsa Rouy (b.2000), whose grotesque ‘visual portrayals of abstruse emotions’ draw on her personal experiences as a woman. On the opposite wall, the selects from Chessa Subbiondo’s (b.2001) Phone Series add a playful yet uncanny touch, capturing the art of ‘amateur’ image-making with staged concepts of emotions - all printed on phone cases just right for your iPhone 6s. Each artist’s distinct style and medium intermingle like puzzle pieces, forming a multifaceted group exhibition that holds up a distorted mirror to a contemporary postmodern condition, characterised by ambiguity and fragmentation. Just as Jean-Francois Lyotard defined the postmodernist condition by a certain scepticism towards the absolute truth and grand narratives, instead shifting attention onto smaller, more localised ones, Subbiondo and Besos’ pieces showcase the beauty in normality, romanticising the landscapes of their upbringing. While Rouy’s artworks contemplate her own perception of the world, the flawed self and the raw realities, rendering them simultaneously subjective and universal.
From left to right: Chessa Subbiondo, Plant, I Phone, 2024, Stolen Besos, Heaven is a Roadway Inn # 7, 2023, Elsa Rouy, Obsidian Upskirt, 2024.
Images courtesy of the artists via Dazed
Obsidian liquid leaking into the exhibition space becomes almost a direct metaphor for philosopher Zygmunt Bauman’s concept of Liquid Modernity, introduced in his 2000 book of the same name. Contrasting it with the ‘solid’ modernity of the previous eras, Bauman argues that structures that used to be relatively stable and predictable are now fluid, reflecting the instability and uncertainty of contemporary life. In this state of constant change, all of the represented artists play around with the mutable nature of identity, navigating and performing it in the realm where post-ironic femininity rules.
Performativity is another key element, underpinning the entire show and serving as connective tissue for its otherwise fragmented and layered narratives. Oscillating between pretending, performing, and becoming, Lucia and Mila navigate their dual roles as both, artists and filmmakers. ‘We made a film about bloggers’, shares Mila on her instagram account, the platform where her own uncanny images seamlessly mesh with the performance of blogging. Artists-turned-directors blur the lines between being authors and subjects, simultaneously living the distorted reality of social media and translating it onto the movie screen—both approximations of reality. However, while cinema has its red curtain that separates fact from fiction, social media’s illusions seem endless: femininity itself, as suggested by Butler, is performative. This idea, truly a cornerstone for the contemporary gender theory, sees gender not as an innate quality or a fixed identity but rather a performance, constituted through repeated acts that are culturally and socially inscribed. Similarly, in the realm of modern-day blogging, social media platforms provide spaces where identities could be easily constructed.
Lucia Farrow and Mila Rowyszyn, Obsidian Upset, 2024, stills
Commanding this new life, where the internet acts as the prime stage, the coquette girl bloggers adopt the hype-feminine aesthetic, embracing its pastel colour palettes, dreamy blurriness and sheer dresses. Capturing this defining moment in 21st century pop culture, where teens explore womanhood through the many sepia-hued filters of the digital world for the first time, Obsidian Upset portrays the uneasy fluidity we encounter while navigating the intricate threads of our identities. So, as mercury retrograde's end is nigh (tomorrow, to be precise)— don’t forget to wear your obsidian necklace.
