{"id":29992,"date":"2016-03-24T15:15:44","date_gmt":"2016-03-24T14:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?p=29992"},"modified":"2016-03-24T15:15:44","modified_gmt":"2016-03-24T14:15:44","slug":"jon-rafman-art-that-melds-pain-and-fascination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/jon-rafman-art-that-melds-pain-and-fascination\/","title":{"rendered":"Jon Rafman: Art that Melds Pain and Fascination"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"size--small\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-29977 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/rafman_arendt_westfaelischerkunstverein_24.jpg\" alt=\"rafman_arendt_westfaelischerkunstverein_24\" width=\"716\" height=\"478\" \/> Jon Rafman Installation view Westfaaelischer Kunstverein, 2016, photograby by Thorsten Arendt<\/p>\n<p>Stepping into Jon Rafman\u2019s solo exhibition one feels as if they are standing on the edge of eternity while blue strips of light mark the borders of a room reminiscent of bus station toilets. Your veins lose visibility as you leave your human ecology behind for Rafman\u2019s image ecology. Today moves at an accelerated pace and a new form of alienation starts to burden the human psyche. Before the 20<sup>th<\/sup> century, 2D visuals were restricted to paintings. Now, anything can live inside a screen. Perception is habitual and automatic, negating the sublime and hacking the mind to suspend its perceptions. Cyberspace toys with our image ecology leave us somewhere between life and the living. The images are deeply impersonal. Therefore, they are personal to all, leaving the viewer to ponder.. Life trapped inside motionless matter, the works are a reflection of shared memories and future ones. Rafman\u2019s solo show allows viewers to enter these glitched lives of others, stepping where few have tread before. Pain melts into humiliation, alienation and eventually silken security as Daniel Lopatin\u2019s commissioned rave baby \u201ceccojams\u201d fill your gut with nostalgic electronic sound waves backing Rafman\u2019s surf achieves.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThe show is uncannily personal and strikingly intimate, with a pool of pearl balls inviting patrons to comfortably watch \u201cStill Life \u2013 Beta Male\u201d or slip into the soft, waist-clinching seats of \u201cMainsqueeze.\u201d The resulting feeling allows your mind to float into an unknown but familiar void. Portraits of digital subcultures and meta-fetish fantasies flash over the screens: furries posing seductively; young teens passed out as their encroaching friends disfigure and cover them in pen; goths in gas masks strutting a carefully choreographed dance routine; a washing machine spins itself into destruction as a brick is lodged in its drum; a young girl speaks of her sick mother while stroking a prawn before crushing it under her foot. Hours of pain, fascination and shared user experience map a \u201cvirtual sublime\u201d as Rafman surfs,searches, selects and curates the lives of thousands.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/75534042?byline=0&amp;portrait=0\" width=\"716\" height=\"403\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/75534042\">Still Life (Betamale), Jon Rafman + Oneohtrix Point Never, 2013<\/a> von <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/jonrafman\">jonrafman<\/a> auf <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\">Vimeo<\/a>.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nSome of the most interesting sites to watch Rafman\u2019s stories unfold are the tiny cupboards specifically built for one person to sit comfortably and consume the screen. One such piece, entitled \u201cCodes of Honor,\u201d tells the story of an ex-professional gamer in his glory days, his strive for the community he once had and the achievement he failed to replicate. It\u2019s the tragic pursuit of gamer versus computer, and without it life is lonely and meaningless. Unfortunately, this is not a niche fantasy. This is reality, and to some, a very real problem known as \u201chikikomori.\u201d More than a mild teenage online addiction in Japan, this phenomenon has become a psychological ailment that the Ministry of Health estimates in 700,000 people. Interestingly, most studies show those diagnosed with hikikomori to be independent thinkers and have a sense of self-orientation that does not fit into the current Japanese cultural and economic climate. And perhaps this is a subset of young people seeking refugee in the only rational and safe place they now know \u2013 the cyberspace.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n<strong>Jon Rafman\u2019s solo show is at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.westfaelischer-kunstverein.de\/ausstellungen\/jon-rafman\/\" target=\"_blank\">Westfaelischer Kunstverein<\/a> until 1 May 2016<\/strong> \n&nbsp;<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this solo show Jon Rafman allows viewers to enter the glitched digital lives of others where pain melts into alienation<\/p>","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":29985,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11856,139],"tags":[38,4154,3845,4155,1031,4156,4157],"class_list":["post-29992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sleek-art","category-art","tag-art","tag-contemporary","tag-digital","tag-hikikomori","tag-jon-rafman","tag-postinternet","tag-westfaelischer-kunstverein"],"acf":{"main_category":null,"legacy":"1","exclude_from_ads":null,"hero_title":null,"subtitle":null,"hero":null,"teasers":null,"facebook_image":null,"related_articles":null,"next_article":null,"sleek_card_focus":null,"content":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Jon Rafman: Art that Melds Pain and Fascination Jon Rafman: Art that Melds Pain and Fascination<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/jon-rafman-art-that-melds-pain-and-fascination\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jon Rafman: Art that Melds Pain and Fascination Jon Rafman: Art that Melds Pain and Fascination\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In this solo show Jon Rafman allows viewers to enter the glitched digital lives of others where pain melts into alienation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/jon-rafman-art-that-melds-pain-and-fascination\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sleek Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sleekmag\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-24T14:15:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sleekmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sleekmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Verfasst von\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Penny Victoria Rafferty\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Gesch\u00e4tzte Lesezeit\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3\u00a0Minuten\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/\",\"name\":\"Sleek Magazine\",\"description\":\"Sleek is Germany\u2019s leading independent media house\/brand for creativity and innovation located in Berlin the creative capital of the world. This creativity manifests itself in SLEEK\u2019s quarterly print publication, digital and social media channels.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"de\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"de\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/jon-rafman-art-that-melds-pain-and-fascination\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/jon-rafman-art-that-melds-pain-and-fascination\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/jon-rafman-art-that-melds-pain-and-fascination\/\",\"name\":\"Jon Rafman: Art that Melds Pain and Fascination Jon Rafman: Art that Melds Pain and Fascination\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/jon-rafman-art-that-melds-pain-and-fascination\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-24T14:15:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-03-24T14:15:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3dbb609ef2057076dc2070c42466b637\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/jon-rafman-art-that-melds-pain-and-fascination\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"de\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/jon-rafman-art-that-melds-pain-and-fascination\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/jon-rafman-art-that-melds-pain-and-fascination\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Jon Rafman: Art that Melds Pain and Fascination\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3dbb609ef2057076dc2070c42466b637\",\"name\":\"Penny Victoria Rafferty\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"de\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b58ccecb5356514f03e1b5e16b79f02eb5552cda30da7a6f705115f5f25b67bf?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b58ccecb5356514f03e1b5e16b79f02eb5552cda30da7a6f705115f5f25b67bf?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Penny Victoria Rafferty\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/author\/penny-victoria-rafferty\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jon Rafman: Art that Melds Pain and Fascination Jon Rafman: Art that Melds Pain and Fascination","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/jon-rafman-art-that-melds-pain-and-fascination\/","og_locale":"de_DE","og_type":"article","og_title":"Jon Rafman: Art that Melds Pain and Fascination Jon Rafman: Art that Melds Pain and Fascination","og_description":"In this solo show Jon Rafman allows viewers to enter the glitched digital lives of others where pain melts into alienation","og_url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/jon-rafman-art-that-melds-pain-and-fascination\/","og_site_name":"Sleek Magazine","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sleekmag\/","article_published_time":"2016-03-24T14:15:44+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@sleekmag","twitter_site":"@sleekmag","twitter_misc":{"Verfasst von":"Penny Victoria Rafferty","Gesch\u00e4tzte Lesezeit":"3\u00a0Minuten"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/","name":"Schlankes Magazin","description":"Sleek ist Deutschlands f\u00fchrendes unabh\u00e4ngiges Medienhaus\/Marke f\u00fcr Kreativit\u00e4t und Innovation mit Sitz in Berlin, der kreativen Hauptstadt der Welt. Diese Kreativit\u00e4t manifestiert sich in der viertelj\u00e4hrlich erscheinenden Print-Publikation, den digitalen und Social-Media-Kan\u00e4len von SLEEK.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"de"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"de","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/jon-rafman-art-that-melds-pain-and-fascination\/#primaryimage","url":"","contentUrl":""},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/jon-rafman-art-that-melds-pain-and-fascination\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/jon-rafman-art-that-melds-pain-and-fascination\/","name":"Jon Rafman: Art that Melds Pain and Fascination Jon Rafman: Art that Melds Pain and Fascination","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/jon-rafman-art-that-melds-pain-and-fascination\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2016-03-24T14:15:44+00:00","dateModified":"2016-03-24T14:15:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3dbb609ef2057076dc2070c42466b637"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/jon-rafman-art-that-melds-pain-and-fascination\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"de","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/jon-rafman-art-that-melds-pain-and-fascination\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/jon-rafman-art-that-melds-pain-and-fascination\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Jon Rafman: Art that Melds Pain and Fascination"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3dbb609ef2057076dc2070c42466b637","name":"Penny Victoria Rafferty","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"de","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b58ccecb5356514f03e1b5e16b79f02eb5552cda30da7a6f705115f5f25b67bf?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b58ccecb5356514f03e1b5e16b79f02eb5552cda30da7a6f705115f5f25b67bf?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Penny Victoria Rafferty"},"url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/author\/penny-victoria-rafferty\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}