About
INSA's latest installation work is his most obviously paradoxical to date. Having built the INSA brand reiterating issues of the female body and commodity fetishism, here, amongst a swirling cacophony of bikini clad women and chrome the audience is assured that âSelf reflection is greater than Self Projection'.
The abstract installation unfolds itself across the floor and wraps itself around four large walls each measuring 4 x 10 meters; the printed imagery is a maelstrom of spheres reflecting two of INSA's iconic women thriving amongst the chaos. The optical illusion created by the digitally printed wallcovering melds the walls into one another to encircle the viewer in this alternative and disarming reality. Alluring and grotesque in equal parts, INSA's work once again challenges our notions of attainment and success, questioning our image and money obsessed culture and our own culpability and complicity in it. Even if we want no part in it, can we ever avoid being voyeurs of these two girls and the INSA bubble they live in?
âSelf Reflection is greater than Self Projection' is loaded with the iconic themes familiar to INSA's work: the idea of success and the innate conflict of whom we really are and what and who we wish to be. Glimpses of a black and white stripped background behind these spheres hint to some sort of superseded purity, albeit briefly, as the irrepressible foreground pushes its way back into focus.
It's clear that success in this world is measured unequivocally by fame, sex, money, and beautiful women in high heels. To his considerable credit, and with no little degree of irony, INSA's constructed reality has created an artistic brand as synonymous with attainment and success in the real world, as the oiled and pouting women depicted in his imagery.
This world is a hyper-reality, in contrast to the artists own lifestyle, but one in which his fans across the globe often go to incredible lengths to take part in. In Spring 2011 the artist announced an open competition on his website, insaland.com, where people were asked to swap something in return for a limited edition INSA and NIKE bootleg t-shirt. Epitomizing the cult appeal and fervent fervor surrounding his work, the successful winners included those individuals who tattooed their bodies with INSA artwork and one who named their first born child under the artist's moniker. Another one of the successful participants, Francesca Selby from Papergraphics donated the digital printable wallcovering, Digimura (www.theartofwallcovering.com) that provides the canvas for INSA's latest installation, a very generous swap that finds herself uniquely at the heart of INSA's coveted and immersive world.
It may not be obvious at first glance, but when meditated upon INSA's work is an astutely calculated critique of society, commodity fetishism, and many of the ardent cravings of life in the 21st century. He throws our desires in our face and tells us to love them and become them, while at the same time trying to hope that there must be more to our life than this. It's for this reason that INSA's oeuvre, and this latest installation in particular, are crucial components of contemporary cultural criticism today.
