When Hell Is Full the Dead Will Walk the Earth
Mixed media installation, digital drawings, animations, videos, photographs, objects (polyester resin, projection film, steel)
Solo show at Kim? Contemporary Art Center, Riga, Latvia
22/08 – 6/10/2019
Photos by Ansis Starks and Līga Spunde
In her solo exhibition, Līga Spunde focuses on the ruthlessness hidden behind forms of everyday communication and information exchange on the internet. She analyses “hate culture” not just online, but in various forms where users exchange chillingly inhuman texts, images and videos that can sometimes also turn into real, horrifying acts.
by Kaspars Groševs
On 13 July 2018 a raid was carried out in an office in central Riga based on an anonymous tip. As a result, seven out of sixteen employees at this office were arrested. Afterwards, the information that was obtained during the search was analysed and criminal proceedings were commenced against three of the seven employees. The search confirmed the anonymous informant‘s testimony: for two years the suspects had hidden criminal activities with the intent to harm the health, lives and reputation of other workers at the office. Documents and correspondence recovered during the search showed that the suspects had followed their victims, and maliciously used personal information, passwords, bank statements and medical data that they had obtained illegally. They had uploaded the victims‘ videos to porn sites, drugged their food causing various allergies and asthma and epilepsy attacks, and also planned the murder of one of the colleagues.
Trying to understand the suspects‘ motives during the inestigation, it was concluded that the above mentioning crimes were committed for entertainment. At the given moment none of the people involved have been charged with a criminal offence, or been imprisoned.
„Poor good soon grows insipid, wants variety and spirit. Pain is a bittersweet, which never surfeits. Love turns, with a little indulgence, to indifferance or disgust. Hatred alone is immortal.“
/William Hazlitt „On The Pleasure Of Hating“/
Text by Klāvs Mellis based on true story
The Mirror, projection, a screen made of polyester resin, steel frame, 110x160cm
Pure Evil Since 1996, protography, 51x70cm
The Sims. A Very Boring Game, digital drawing, 150x110cm
When Hell Is Full the Dead Will Walk the Earth, digital drawing, 150x110cm
Dialogues, video projection, 8:16 min, loop
The Pleasure Of Hating, photography, 70x105cm
The Mirror
“The Mirror” is an animated projection on a screen made out of polyester resin. The inspiration for the object, is the magic mirror from the Disney film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”. In the movie the mirror played the role of a passive spy – it retold and replayed the murder of Snow White to the queen. This is similar to what the computer screen does nowadays. The role of the character and its purpose in the famous fairytale made me think about the world of Dark Net today.
Dialogues
The video is based on the documentary texts from the outrageous exchange from the “Texting Suicide Case”. The case of Michelle Carter and Conrad Henri Roy attracted international attention. One of the reasons that caused such curiosity was the fact that it was one of the first cases in history when someone was sentenced to jail time for murder committed by text message.