Tension Between Reality and Digital Disconnection

In this mixed media piece I’ve attempted to explore tension between stillness and movement, gravity and suspension, reality and imagination. The man on the phone is represented twice, as a positive and negative image. He’s in an intensive conversation but not really connected to his environment. I’ve observed thousands of people walking the streets in different countries either speaking on the phone or gazing into it. They’re largely unaware of the world around them and more connected to a dreamlike digital wilderness. They’re not in the real world.

The positive man contrasts sharply with the almost abstract environment around him. He looks as though he has been extracted from an ordinary street photograph and inserted into a different psychological universe. He’s in a wilderness; a man trying to navigate an increasingly unstable world.