The PARADISE LOST series deals with the promise of the paradise state of mind #thegoodlife. Courtesy: the internet. The visual feed of social media culture is an exposition portraying society’s deepest desires. Screen based images curated by Instagram are the fragmentary collaged motifs for Caroline Corleone to ask about the eutopian idea of paradise in the 21th century within the realm of tech-based communication, prevalent consumer lifestyle and palm trees as apparent metaphors for universal desire and the pursuit of happiness.
1. Imagine the Instagram feed of Paul Gauguin. No more mockery for his blue dogs, yellow palm trees, pink beaches. But a shitstorm for enjoying a 13-year old „muse“. Imagine the Insta stories Charles Marlow would have curated for his followers of „Heart of Darkness“. Blank spaces fading into darkness. Total eclipse; Yellow madness. Imagine the uploads of Robinson Crusoe- if he somehow would have managed to set up a hotspot. All the selfies with Friday. White privilege and the “exotic” paradise.
2. The Garden of the Hesperides was not fun anymore. She’s bored guarding the golden apples, watching dazzling glowing sunsets night after night after night. Sometimes interrupted by the intrigues of notorious gods and goddesses. But where to go? Arcadia is just another Disneyland. Kythera is overcrowded with poly party folks from all the points of the compass. Eden is a battlefield for all aspects concerning the human condition. Where to go? Where is this place that will make her heartbeat jump?
3. According to our belief system, the ardently desired paradise is an illusion that makes a fundamental goal palatable. The direct response to the rise of capitalism. We are highly individualistic, self-interested, and competitive. We expect opportunism and manipulation from all social transactions. Paradise is a refuge against this hostile world. It is traced to its genesis as a way of transcending the existential limits of the self. This existential desire is the source of the human yearning for salvation in this world, if only in imagination. A beautiful lie. Western civilization did not discover love.
