The Artist's Eye: Why James Ostrer Sent His Alter Ego to America After Brexit
Earlier this year, I created Ego System, a body of work which is currently on show at Gazelli Art House in London. I see the artworks as futurology portraits of all that’s going wrong within the contemporary human condition. They are made out of animal parts and various ephemera and unsurprisingly the one that has attracted the most attention is the effigy of Donald Trump.
I made this particular work in an attempt to encourage people to not vote for Donald and find a way to viscerally capture all I felt he negatively stands for. What I have realized since first publishing it and baring witness to the deluge of similarly themed memes and caricatures that have propagated the internet since is that these kind of images however impactful and uniting they seem to the people who already share your perspective they actually don’t in anyway change the minds of those that don’t.
I have also realized that ultimately these kind of images just contribute further to an overall social divide through the aggressive interplays that are ignited via what is more often than not bassline attacks on subjects as obscure as the presumed size of Donald’s penis.
What has concerned me the most is how the media battle between Donald and Hillary has increasingly becoming an amphitheater filled with abuse, humiliation and shaming of which I have arguably contributed too. My realization is that this all ultimately acts as a polarizing subversion away from the point of healthy democracy which is to promote a fair and majority wellbeing determined through politically informed choice not just addictive click bait.
Combine these realizations post Brexit with the emotions of the determined Brexiters now being full of regret, the protest non-voters wished they had, those with the least now having even less and the re-mainers feeling beyond shell shocked - I just couldn’t kick back and feel my contribution in this historical year of politics was in anyway complete with a successful piece of viral Trumpian propaganda.
I have therefore been compelled to come to the USA to try in any way I can to be a part of preventing this political conquer and divide state of separatism and focus more on what unites humanity in terms of common values and desires.
My method whether perfect or not has been to spend the last 3 months living in LA, interviewing Uber drivers of every color and creed, about the upcoming election and what being American actually means to them.
I haven’t been conducting the interviews as myself but my alta ego “Guru Jimmy”. He started off as a private joke between me and my mother after she once stated 20 years ago, that I “needed to go to India to find a guru” as a way of dealing with my predisposition to anxiety and depression. But has since evolved into a joyful medium of positive activism that is blessed by many welcome doors of difference much beyond what I could achieve as myself.
What making this series has ultimately taught me is however much the politicians and mainstream media try and convince us otherwise, however extreme our opposing political view point, we all actually have a lot more in common than we think. What unifies us is the basic core values of wanting love, health, security and welcoming community and the only way that will be resolved is if we reduce conflict not increase it.
JAMES OSTRER
James Ostrer’s Ego System work is on show at Gazelli Art House, London until 14 November. Guru Jimmy’s Uberlife is online now.
