The Course of Empire in 24-hours

​Blending augmented reality with painting is a technique that Thomas Cole did not have access to in the 1930s, when he created Destruction, one of five works in The Course of Empire,  imagining the rise and fall of an imagined civilization. Layers of information are not wedded to any technology, but to perception. “Put on the glasses!..” urged the lead actor, played by wrestler Roddy Piper, in John Carpenter’s 1988 cult sci-fi classic: “They Live” (during one of cinema’s longest backalley fistfight scenes).  In this film, looking through the dark Ray-Bans revealed an even more frightening world. New layers are revealed by peeling away blinders, or in They Live’s case, by putting them on. The difference between normal forgetting and dementia is when what we can’t see, leads to the quickness of our demise. Brains, not eyes, perform vision or blindness. There are no alarms when images of decay become painless to gawk at, whether coming from the opposite side of the world, or your own home. But we are in a time of not such simple comparisons to any 19th or 20th century visions.

Today we are decidedly confused authors, who are informed by the confused. Our leaders are one step ahead of a reality that no one agrees upon. Day and night are terms of opposition, but in this collaborative work of painting and augmented reality by Jim Ovelmen and Ricardo Sierra,  El Sol de La Noche,  we all “agree to disagree”. The left half of the world is depicted in sunlight, while the right half is in the dark. The work shows a course of an overall destruction of which the origin or timeline, cannot be comprehended. Was this mayhem the outcome of a missile or a terrible earthquake? perhaps both at the same time. In reality, the 1985 earthquake centered in Mexico City led to the collapse of the iconic multi-story building, the Hotel Regis. The loss of life suffered in this catastrophe should still ground us. Other structures and buildings are demolished as well, and opulent objects of a golden age are oddly strewn. A large chandelier dangles from a street light. Billboards and signs remain erect and mostly disponible...available for new confusions. And there are confused people walking in the rubble, all which can only be seen with the AR glasses. Whether this tragic bewilderment arose from below, or rained from the sky, we can’t know. We unlearn this planet’s countdown to love each other, as we skip the climax when we’re hypnotized by what is on sale.

In the day and night of political polarity, we are constituents living in a daze. Bombings are too unreal, except for those unlucky enough to be at ground zero. We are even puzzled over timelines. We have existential dyslexia. We are quite confident in our erroneous conclusions. We are accustomed to living in parallel worlds, until the worst happens to us. Even empathy becomes hijacked and cultivated anew for material consumption...pronto a la venta. El Sol De La Noche means to explode our lucid dementia generated by overwhelming and constant mediation. Everything is familiar but scary, so we focus on the ads, and ignore the devastation. The hallucination is all we have. Keep walking, keep driving…but always looking at your phone…obey your desires.

​There seems to be a chronic case of paradoxical-anachronism.  This happens when, say, a film director is making a period or historical piece, and tries too hard to make everything shown in the film belong only to the particular year that is depicted in the story. In reality, everything in any environment comes from a deep variety of the past. Few of the items we experience today, emerged, or were “invented” in the current year we are living. The more we try to avoid the mistakes of anachronism when depicting past worlds, the more we lie. And with the destruction, beauty, and trauma in El Sol Del La Noche, a similar fictive paradox is happening, but in reverse. We pretend all the stuff that is happening today will define our current year to future populations, like a time-capsule. We are certain that our particular beliefs are “on the right side of history”. But certainties like these reveal our vanity, not our virtue. We are part of the forgetful cycle.  All this started before anyone will tell you, and it just keeps repeating. All we can guess about the future is that people and machines will regenerate their hallucinations and their own timelines anew, based neatly within the latest 24-hour cycle. 
​El Sol De La Noche

​Within this recent temporal period marked by media acceleration and information oversaturation, "EL SOL DE LA NOCHE" delves, through this multimedia installation, into a critical analysis of the condition of the image and the archive within the global contemporary context. This project responds urgently and necessitates a critical examination of how the overproduction of images and information across various physical and digital formats impact not only our psychology and perception of the world but also our social interactions, influencing a sense of reordering and the notion of reality. Furthermore, it explores how these media mechanisms shape and delineate our collective narratives, not only within the sphere of inhabiting and witnessing a present and multiple possible futures but also towards a constant and continuous reinterpretation (alteration-manipulation) of the past.

The reflection on the interplay between the archive and image-art, considering their temporal constraints and specific challenges inherent to each era, entails a meticulous analysis of the power dynamics and ideological cores intrinsically linked to them. The representation of catastrophes or destruction in the current temporal context, mediated, reproduced, and projected by photography, cinema, and television as starting points to establish legitimacy and veracity regarding a certain event or situation, raises essential questions about the distinction between the authentic and the fictitious. The sophistication of messages in the numerous images and digital formats we encounter daily in public spaces and on our screens prompts profound inquiries into how the media configures rhythms and patterns of perception and understanding of reality.

​"EL SOL DE LA NOCHE" does not merely present itself as a passive artistic piece but also assumes the role of a critical testimony that encourages deep reflection on the intricate dynamics shaping our understanding of the world and the construction of our realities. In this sense, the artwork unfolds as an invitation to explore thoughtfully the intricate connections between media images, the archive, and the hegemonic forces that mold our perception of the environment and our participation in collective narratives.
About Jim Ovelmen
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Jim Ovelmen is an internationally recognized artist living in Los Angeles. His mixed-media work has been shown all over the world. His exhibitions at museums and venues in Europe and Asia include SWAB Barcelona 2019, Art Basel Miami 2016, '17 and '18, QIPO-01 Mexico City 2018, Museum of Human Acheivement, Austin Texas 2019, the Chung Shan Creative Hub in Taipei in 2014 and Taipei Fridge Festival in 2013. His work was featured in the 2010 Aichi Triennale in Japan, as well as numerous galleries and museums in the United States and Europe. Showing drawing, painting, and animated video in New York and Los Angeles, his videos, animations, and musical performances have been featured at FilmForum Los Angeles, Pacific Asia Museum, Torrance Art Museum, Kristi Engle Gallery, PØST Gallery, Kristine Koenig Gallery in Vienna, AWOL Los Angeles, and Artist Space in New York. He participated in LA|Water Public Art Biennial, Summer 2016. He is also a Professor of Art at California State University Los Angeles.

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About Ricardo Sierra 
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​Mexican artist and educator working across drawing, painting, installation and digital media. Sierra’s practice reflects upon pedagogical processes related to creative production and contemporary art and the visual representation of <invisible> social transactions through a symbolic approach of energetic fields and architectural projections. Recently he’s been exploring digital communication exchanges, social media culture and screen studies.

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