OFFLINE AND LOADING | Serwah Attafuah

Image courtesy of the artist

‘OFFLINE AND LOADING’ by multidisciplinary artist, Serwah Attafuah, explores the connections between 16th-century Dutch Vanitas still lifes and contemporary Ghanaian Sakawa rituals, creating a provocative dialogue between historical European art and modern African digital spirituality.

By interweaving these disparate cultural and technological references, Attafuah invites viewers to contemplate universal themes of mortality, materialism, and the pursuit of spiritual meaning in the digital age. The work challenges the colonial gaze often applied to African practices while highlighting our enduring preoccupation with death, luxury, and the afterlife across cultures and time.

Through this contemporary memento mori, ‘OFFLINE AND LOADING’ encourages reflection on our relationship with mortality and materialism in an era of digital interconnectedness, where the boundaries between physical and virtual realities continue to blur. The work confronts the user’s experiences with their mortality and raises questions about how we engage with materialism and spirituality in an increasingly technological mass hallucination.

 

Serwah Attafuah (b. 1998) is a multidisciplinary artist and musician based on Dharug land/West Sydney, Australia. She creates surreal cyber dreamscapes and heavenly wastelands, populated by afro-futuristic abstractions of self with strong ancestral and contemporary themes.

Serwah has collaborated and been commissioned by clients including Mercedes Benz, Nike, GQ, Microsoft, Adobe, Paris Hilton and Valentino. Notable achievements include her participation in Sotheby’s ‘Natively Digital’: A Curated NFT auction, ‘Apotheosis’: a live motion capture experience with Soft Centre at The Sydney Opera House and a TEDX talk in Sydney on The Metaverse and Afrofuturism

About BLEED

BLEED (Biennial Live Event in the Everyday Digital) interrogates the relationship between the digital and the live.

Festival dates: 30 August – 29 September 2024

OFFLINE AND LOADING is commissioned and produced by Campbelltown Arts Centre as part of BLEED 2024.

BLEED (Biennial Live Event in the Everyday Digital) was conceived by Campbelltown City Council through Campbelltown Arts Centre, and The City of Melbourne through Arts House. BLEED 2024 is produced and presented by Campbelltown Arts Centre, Arts House, and Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts in partnership with Treasure Hill Artist Village.

When

Location

Campbelltown Arts Centre, 1 Art Gallery Road, 2560, View Map