Crocodile Power works mainly with painting and sculpture and uses various mixed media techniques. Exploring the consequences of technological progress, the artists reveal the physical and psychological metamorphoses that occur to people as a result of interaction with virtual reality. Their practice is based on the study of the intangible feeling of ambiguity, loss of oneself and collision with the destruction of meaning — all that so vividly characterizes modern man in our era.
Crocodile Power's works often refer to the allegory of the dark forest as cyberspace. The image of the dark forest has been used for centuries to denote a place of mystery and danger. In old German fairy tales, the forest is the habitat of magical creatures. In some epic poems, the forest is an incomprehensible will that opposes the desires of those who enter it and take it for granted.
The real and the virtual merge together, and a person turns into raw material. Cyberspace, like the dark forest, is a volitional consciousness that continuously reasserts itself, absorbing our thoughts and desires. Oberon's will is carried out by cyber priests who, disguised as corporate executives with virtual interfaces, fascinate us with their digital spells. Ever-narrowing attention limits our collective humanity, while technological progress accelerates the process of metamorphosis. We realize that we are alive because we see and hear, even though our senses are stimulated to the point of numbness.
Text: Anton Svyatsky, ed. Ekaterina Allenova
