Photography is now being consumed on screens. We find photographers on Instagram and Pinterest, scroll through their work, share a photo and move on to the next. But for Johannesburg-based creative RHUXIECREATES, this relationship with photography as a consumer raised the question – what happens when the photograph is no longer the end goal?
The work of the Johannesburg-based photographer RHUXIECREATES is a response to his own frustration with the way that photography is being consumed on screens rather than experienced in real life.
It is this very frustration that led to the creation of his solo photography exhibition, Revenge of the Dreamers, which seeks to transform the way people interact with photography from a purely digital experience to a physical one.
At the centre of this project is the idea that is “ruthless with your dreams”, with RHUXIECREATES noting that he had constantly told himself that he was not ready to create the physical experiences he imagined in his head
In creating this project, he set out to build a visual world around the people in his photographs who were in a “dream state”, with the red in the images signifying the relentlessness of this particular dream. The black and white subjects in the photographs interact with the physical manifestations of their desires – jewellery, cars, designer bags, duffel bags of cash, and gold bars.
The objects in the photographs are not a suggestion of what people should want, but rather what people associate with success and achievement.
The people in the photographs have varying relationships with these items, with some appearing to be consumed by their desires, while others are boastful, empowered, or simply happy to have achieved their goals. By presenting these images, RHUXIECREATES asks more complex questions about what happens when people get what they want and what happens to their dreams when they achieve their goals.
However, for RHUXIECREATES, the photographs were only the beginning of what became a much bigger project.
Revenge of the Dreamers is not just about the images. It is about the experience that comes with it.
Seeking to transform the way people interact with photography, RHUXIECREATES transformed the exhibition space into an immersive environment that sought to engage visitors on a much more complex level.
By incorporating a red visual motif, a Polaroid station, a social and lounge area, refreshments, live painting, and T-shirt customisation, RHUXIECREATES invited visitors to document their own experiences at the exhibition, interact with other creatives, and become a part of the world that had been created for them.
This transformation of the exhibition space into an immersive environment was an attempt to disrupt the traditional relationship between an artwork and its audience.
It is a recognition that photography is no longer just about images on paper or on a screen, but rather the experience of engaging with the art and the opportunity to become a part of it.
Visitors were encouraged to capture their own experiences at the exhibition, with the Revenge of the Dreamers world becoming an extension of their own lives.
It is a disruption of the traditional gallery space that reflects a much bigger shift in the way that audiences want to interact with art.
For RHUXIECREATES, the work did not end when the visitor left the exhibition space. With Revenge of the Dreamers, he sought to disrupt the art world yet again by inviting his audience to become collectors of his work through a Collector’s Sale, which saw the release of limited edition prints of his work.
This disruption of the art world is yet another way in which RHUXIECREATES sought to make art more accessible to a younger audience.
With young people already consuming art at exhibitions and discovering new talent online, the Collector’s Sale was an opportunity to encourage younger audiences to become art collectors.
While traditional art collectors tend to be older and have the financial stability to purchase original works of art, young people, creatives, students, and those buying their first original work all play a role in supporting emerging artists. By making art collecting more accessible to a younger audience, RHUXIECREATES is not only encouraging financial support from this group but also building stronger relationships with them.
The Collector’s Sale is another way in which RHUXIECREATES disrupts the traditional art world in order to make his work and art more accessible.
Revenge of the Dreamers is, at its core, a project about disrupting traditional relationships with art.
While the work of RHUXIECREATES is firmly rooted in photography, it is not limited to the medium. It disrupts the art world by engaging with its audience in an immersive environment that encourages interaction, with visitors becoming active participants in the art. It also disrupts the traditional relationship between an artist and their audience by encouraging young people to collect original works of art.
At the heart of this project is a question about art and its relationship with the audience, but it is also a deeply personal statement from the artist.
When asked about the project, RHUXIECREATES described it as an experiment in not waiting for permission to create the things that he wanted to make. At the core of the project is the idea that dreams can be elusive and that people can spend years telling themselves that they are not ready to achieve their goals or create their art.
Revenge of the Dreamers seeks to disrupt this self-imposed limitation by creating a world around the idea of dreams and asking the viewer to engage with it. In building this world, RHUXIECREATES sought to remind himself and his audience that it is possible to build something incredible without waiting for the “perfect” time to do so.
