Simon Pericich's ‘CROWD Sorcering’
Art, Laneways
Blogged by: Melbourne Central 05 Apr 2016
Simon Pericich
 
Simon Pericich’s hysterical, dark brand of makeshift art production is concerned with the terrifying awareness that humanity is irrationally selfish and detrimental. Traversing large-scale installation, video and image, his nihilistic dystopias act like an evolving epitaph and harbinger for a future that seems out of the control of its population.
 
Sometimes stemming from the autobiographical, sometimes making a detached commentary on consumer trends, Pericich’s practice forms transitory bonds between audience members and acts as a sarcastic invitation or platform to participate. His methodology has been cited as Relational Aesthetics for perverts, and his work has a knack of salvaging commonplace materials or ideas to create absurd yet poetically obsessive shrines that examine yet defy commodification. His recognisably ad hoc and sinister style is always ready to inhabit new territories and tries to speak of that big heavy junk – you know, like being alive.
 
Simon Pericich
‘CROWD Sorcering’

2014. 3 channel digital video, edition of 5 and 2AP, 6.05 minutes.
Film samples: YouTube™ – Five Finger Death Punch, Rock on The Range 2012
Sound samples: Someone Like You, Adele; Wrecking Ball, Miley Cyrus; Counterfeit Deity, Vengeful. Field recordings from a hole drilled 14.4 kilometres into the earth’s crust by a Finnish geological team.
 
Pericich’s video CROWD sorcering draws us in with the guise of music videos, those snack-sized otherworldly experiences packaged for the attention-deficient. At first the emotive melody lulls us into feeling like this is another one of those poignant ads for a bank or car, or some other consumer entitlement. The vocal teaser keeps us just on the verge of recognising something we’ve heard before.
 
Our voyeuristic journey races through an uncannily banal void: an empty car park made all the more bleak with masses of people on either side. Image and sound conjure the feel of being alone in a crowded world, like pacing through constructed environments with headphones of random tunings, waiting for the end of the limbo. In this architecture of sameness and repetition we are spun round in circles with only number signs hinting that we may be progressing up.
 
– Talitha Kennedy

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