Wild Kingdom, Clayton Campbell's latest series on view at Coagula Curatorial through August 23, strikes prescient notes as the artist morphs stealth shots of humans into natural history dioramas from museums throughout the United States. Dioramas, those beloved and creepy displays, set up taxidermy trophy animals against luridly painted backdrops with dusty silk and plastic plants to appear as though these are natural environments. Into his photographs of these simulacra, Campbell has seamlessly and humorously dropped his images of humans. They are oblivious to the animals, to the beauty around them, to potential danger as they stare into their smart phones; some of these stealth snaps Campbell took on his phone, furthering the artistic ouroboros. In Wild Kingdom, Campbell shows that as individuals, our dependency on technology blinds us to precipices and predators, to each other. We are living vicariously when we look at a diorama; we live vicariously -- and allow others to live vicariously -- through social media.
Campbell's clear and clever observations/commentaries on society's obsession with our smart phones and social media to the exclusion of our surroundings stand strongly on their own -- but are rendered even more profound with the burnishing of current events. Like Cassandra on the walls of Troy, Campbell calls out prophetic warnings.
Within a week of Wild Kingdom opening, Cecil the lion's death at the hands of an American dentist became a worldwide outrage, fueled by social media, events foreshadowed in "Prepping for the Kill." That same week, one of five white rhinos in existence died in a Czech zoo, and five Kenyan elephants were slaughtered by poachers; in "The Sorry Story of the Sad Safari," five humans have met their deaths by ignoring the world around them, while others may soon follow.
There may come a time when we see wild animals only as stuffed mementos mori, not even in a zoo, let alone in their natural state. Meanwhile we capture endless events and share them on social media, storing these images in the cloud -- actually huge stacks of servers generating so much heat they are based in the Arctic -- all at the expense of experiencing directly. We constantly filter reality, the input and output.
Our compulsion to document and communicate has caused changes in our bodies, from "text neck" and spinal degeneration to altering our gait and speed of walking, as reported in a study published in PLOS, just days after Campbell's Wild Kingdom opened.
Campbell has created 30 digital images for Wild Kingdom, 12 of which hang at Coagula Curatorial, printed on aluminum, painterly and glowing. The entire series plays on the gallery's video monitor adding another level of the simultaneous involvement and detached observation we often apply to our social media feeds.
While Cassandra's warnings were dire, Wild Kingdom is sly and witty and playful; gallows humor at the artist's and our own expenses: Campbell admits to texting people to come to the show; and I laugh too because I am writing this on my phone at my local juice bar, half observing the humans who engage and interact with the staff, and wondering if I can sneak a photo of the pit bull waiting patiently so I can upload it the Facebook group Dogspotting -- or its owner to this group.
Wild Kingdom through August 23, at Coagula Curatorial, 974 Chung King Road, Chinatown, Los Angeles 90027. Open Wednesday through Sunday, 1pm to 6pm.
The Sorry Story of the Sad Safari
I'm Telling You One Day Selfies Will Mean Nothing
Photos by Clayton Campbell, used by permission of the artist and Coagula Curatorial.