In Mustafa Hulusi's BLACK (MORPH), crude analogue 16mm film meets up-to-date technological know-how with a 25 year interlude.
The original was shot in 1996 whilst just one year out of Goldsmiths art school. I was heavily influenced by artists such as Steve McQueen who only just graduated a few years before me. The art of Gillian Wearing was also significant for me. They were making work that grappled with the nitty gritty and the challenge of lived experience, vividly dealing in social topics of race, class, gender, family, mental health, substance abuse, etc.
The epoch was largely driven by an anthropocentric approach to contemporary critical discourse, and the main reference point for many of the staff at college was the May ’68 period however, by the early ‘90’s this optimism had simply transformed into a kind of depressed hangover, like the late 1980’s culture wars and grim realisation that the political imposition of neoliberal ideology was inescapable. The writings of Mark Fisher from the 2000’s onwards is an excellent analysis of this period.
I was grappling with how visual culture was set up to be seen through a Baudrillardian prism and by collaborating with Weirdcore for BLACK (MORPH), this seems to the perfect reaction. He is the same age as me and though we didn’t go to art school together, we share the same life experiences which shapes our share cultural tastes; early computer gaming, experimental electronic music (both listening and making) unify in him with his VFX work for Aphex Twin, amongst many other notable musicians. - Mustafa HulusiBLACK (MORPH) originally used the David Bowie Heroes soundtrack but presented here it is silent as Hulusi learnt that using the negative space of silence creates a far more poignant opening for the imagination to roam.
