Section 3 – Dystopia

This final section of the exhibition is in a rectangular part of the gallery. A decorative archway connects it to the previous section. Its three walls are painted a glossy, deep brownish purple-red.

This section is called Dystopia. There are artworks mounted on the three walls, each one with a large roman numeral on the wall above, applied with gold leaf.

The works in this section reflect on the algorithms that sort the online content that we encounter on social media. They consider what people are seeking when they consume and post content on social media platforms.

This works connect two ways of making sense of our lives: the myths, legends and folktales passed between people, and the stories we encounter and tell about ourselves online. In both, people look for meaning and ways to explain the forces that shape their lives.

Pied Piper. This animation is displayed on a screen as large as an average doorway. The base of the screen sits on a low plinth, the top leans back against the wall. On the screen is a yellow and gold archway that looks out onto a barbican: a gateway to a castle. There is a tower on the left and right and a portcullis in the centre. Each tower has a flagpole on top with a dark red triangular flag with a gold lion motif. The flags are blowing into the centre so that they mirror each other. The sky is deep blue with 11 gold stars. It appears like a heavenly roof; a medieval painted ceiling. Everything else in the composition appears to be made of shiny ceramic.

The Pied Piper stands upright in the centre, occupying most of the screen. They play a long green horn while dancing on the spot. They wear a dark red bycocket hat, a long-sleeved top with a light and dark blue diamond pattern, a white Peter Pan collar, and short medieval breeches in olive green. They have pale skin and rosy cheeks, a dark brown goatee beard and sparkly silver sunglasses.

At their feet, standing at their ankle height are 20 identical rats. They are on their hind legs, and look like people in rat costumes. They are standing on a surface that looks like clear iridescent bubble wrap with grass growing through it. The rats are performing a dance to the Charli XCX song Apple that went viral on TikTok in 2024. The animation is looped so that the dance never ends.

For Fromm Studio, the Pied Piper of Hamelin provides a metaphor for mass persuasion today. In the legend, the piper’s music lures the rats into following. Fromm Studio connect this idea with social media feeds that lure people into endless scrolling.

The Bog Lady. This wall mounted plaque is about the height of a guitar. It has a shape like a tombstone, with a curved top edge and straight left, right and bottom edges. It is made from smooth 3D printed white plastic that appears like plaster.

The plaque shows a bird’s-eye view of the surface of a bog, although it hangs upright on the wall. The bog has a figure floating on the surface. In this description, left and right refer to the figure’s own body. Raised moss, grasses, reeds and flowers surround the plaque’s edges, and ripples run across the flatter areas. A figure of a young woman occupies most of its length, floating face up with her back partly submerged. She wears pyjamas, with her long hair spread around her head. Her right arm falls out to the side, with a computer mouse lying close by. Her right leg is extended and her left leg is bent forward; both feet appear to be submerged. A partly submerged laptop lies to the her left. In her left hand, she holds a smartphone above the face and slightly to her left. her face points towards the phone. Her eyes are open, with blank pupils.

Fromm Studio are interested in bogs as places that have been seen as between worlds: neither land nor water, life nor death. They are known for preserving things: mummified bodies have been found in them after thousands of years.

For Fromm Studio, the internet is a kind of bog filled with our photos and content, but not necessarily one that will preserve our memories. Their Bog Lady is a modern bog person, suspended between the physical and digital worlds with her desire for immortality and her ability to perceive the world only through its reflection.

Idols of the Tribe. This work consists of five sculptural forms mounted in a row on the wall. They vary in height; the largest is around the size and volume of a pillow. They appear to be carved from pale stone, but all are made from the same 3D printed plastic. Behind each form is a rectangle of silver metal with a faceted silver nail in each corner.
These forms rework those of the White Island figures of Lower Lough Erne in Northern Ireland. The originals are a series of carvings made in the nineth century that are thought to represent pilgrims.

Each of Fromm Studio’s figures represent something that many people wish for. From left to right, these are; political agency, happiness, success, friendship and body confidence. Fromm Studio’s figures resemble the White Island figures, but include new details. I’ll describe them from left to right. The first holds a gramophone with a fist raised. The next photographs a cup of coffee and a plate of sliced avocado on toast. The smallest figure, in the centre holds a blue tick, the social media verification symbol. At their feet, a bar chart represents the tracking of likes and interactions on social media. Next, a pair photograph themselves in front of a group of onlookers. The final figure crosses their fists over their bare chest, above their six-pack made up of triangles.

The group takes its title, Idols of the Tribe, from Francis Bacon’s seventeenth-century description of the human tendency to find patterns and meaning where there may be none. For Fromm Studio, social media has turned this tendency into an industry. The work asks whether social media can give us the meaning and authenticity we seek.