Hundred Years Gallery is delighted to present the launch of ‘CCTVYLLE : Everything Is Under Control’, a monograph showcasing the entire body of work created for the CCTVYLLE project in the past few years. This is a free event : everybody welcome.
CCTVYLLE started with a dream. It was Spring in 2010 and I woke up one morning remembering vividly what I had just seen in my dreams. The beautiful trees of an enchanting little park called London Fields (In London, UK) were towering, majestically before my eyes. As I moved closer to one of them I noticed unusual creatures perched on the branches of the tree. I walked closer and within seconds I could clearly identify these most unusual animals, hybrid birds of different species all having a bizarre looking head. I could not believe my eyes, their heads were CCTV cameras of different types, connected to the neck and body in a surprisingly elegant and intricate fashion.
That morning I had this strong feeling that the dream, which I was remembering in every detail, was special; that dream could be the vision of a possible future. So I promised to myself not to forget the vision but rather let it become the inspiration for an art project.
With a first quick sketch drawn that very morning CCTVYLLE inception phase was just starting.
Through visual art, comics, photography and other art forms, often interacting with each other, CCTVYLLE presents a new vision of the future of public surveillance and the sinister outcomes of an increasingly globalised economy and society.CCTVYLLE imagery is dominated by creatures that appear to be designed for a specific purpose: to effectively control people’s lives to an extent never seen before.
In a post-drone era when the advance of ground-breaking bio-cybernetic science and new technologies become available, the thin line between the use and the misuse of such powerful resources is re-drawn by a new global oligarchic power capable of controlling people’s minds on both a conscious and subconscious level.
Gianluca Bonomo