For Pixel Forest, I did try to submerse myself in the video installations and drown out the crowd noise. From what I can interpret about Pipolotti’s goals in this 3-floor exhibition is the relation of nature with the human body. A lot of scenes of bodies of water and plants with humans in their most vulnerable states (naked sometimes) made me think how far we’ve become and how our world has become so artificial to benefit us.
The main part of the exhibition with the hanging color-changing lights was a contrast to the video feed in the corner. There was a border between them, and here I think the artist is making us experience humanity’s simplicity in nature compared to their complexity with the artificial. When you walk around the LED crystals you feel a sense of entrapment and anxiety; you can’t relax or sit/lie down. It is an interpretation of our stressed out modern lives inundated with technology. The corner video area is relaxing, where you can lie down and watch fluid scenes of nature. This is the part where we look back to how things were so easy, simple and natural; a sense of a primitive life.
For the part that stuck out the most to me, it was the small scale home of the typical family and their routines. There is a small video feed showing the family having dinner and a child’s birthday party. There are flames in dinner plates which threw off the simple routines of family life, as if to say the fire is meant to destroy this boring life and recreate something new.
On the wall there’s a video of someone talking about the scientific reasons of having a family along with negativity (“grow and rot together”) and pessimism. Basically she is saying with must have families in our society because it is the “thing to do” and she gets agitated about it, as if she herself feels trapped in this life.
The white wall of household items and clothing depicts how all this stuff become bland and boring over time. Buying it gives temporary pleasure and allows us to forget our mundane family life, but in the end the reality is you can’t escape your life by buying stuff to be happy.