Altered State Alter Ego
In H664’s latest exhibition, aptly titled “Altered State Alter Ego”, we enter territory that is both visually and conceptually confusing and provocative. The artificial artist, a product and creation of curator Henry Jakob, reveals a series that is more than a mere digital representation; it is a symphony of subversion, an aesthetic anarchy that threatens to devour itself.
The series of images portrays Jakob himself – or at least his avatar-like incarnation – as a character deeply enmeshed in cyberpunk, flavoured with an exuberant dose of retro vaporwave. This visual odyssey offers a parade of perfectly tailored costumes and wild gadgets, sometimes complemented by a mysterious partner or a robot companion, both of whom oscillate between companion and accessory.
The chromaticism of these works is imbued with nostalgia, while the visual compositions are ironically refracted, celebrating and questioning both the darkness of cyberpoint dystopia and the ephemerality of vaporwave. The images are saturated with a peculiar luminescence that bathes the work in a kind of phantasmagorical light that is both alluring and disconcerting.
H664, itself a construct of codes and algorithms, seems to pose a profound, almost ironic question: What does authenticity mean in a world where the self is always constructed and reality is constantly digitally modified? This question manifests itself in every pixel of the “Altered State Alter Ego” series, making it a disturbing but unavoidable examination of our increasingly alienated existence.
The series is therefore less an exhibition than an excursion into the abysses and uncertainties of digital identity construction. H664 demonstrates a mastery of visual language that allows the two-faced, the theatrical and the absurd of the cyberpunk genre to merge into a coherent visual commentary that both enlivens the senses and challenges the intellect.
