Eating Magma (2017-ongoing)
Elena Aya Bundurakis challenges the senses with her series. In ‘Eating Magma’, the Greek-Japanese artist uses photography, drawing, video and haiku to explore the strange feeling of being a living organism in a data-driven world. Her images are initially reminiscent of microphotography, with extreme close-ups of amorphous molluscs, fantastical plants and fleshy intestines. In showing nature’s mysteries she reveals how organisms that have survived for millions of years are more cyborg than actual cyborgs. Zooming in and out on natural elements, she discloses a different view of the world we live in, thus seeking an emotional and ethical position within a universe where everything is interconnected.
For Bundurakis, gazing around is a tool to cope with the stress of being alive, in a complex society where the personal focus is easily lost among tons of information systems. Nothing is certain, except the existential doubt about who we are. Each generation mutates and passes its burdens on to the next, with unlimited possibilities of what they might become. In Bundurakis’ eyes, Generation Z can better navigate its way in the high-tech world by sensing that we are all part of an age-old, living mega-organism where an airy consciousness is the only way to survive our complex world.
courtesy of Metronom gallery (Modena, Italy)
