Gabriel Barcia-Colombo United States, b. 1982
height 215.9 cm
Afterparty is a large-scale triptych video work — immersive, confrontational, and deliberately overwhelming. Performers populate three zones: entertainment, relationships, and knowledge. At the center lies a cowboy, tossing and turning at the brink of sleep, while those around him move through their own private rituals — ordinary tasks made strange by the context of spectacle. The work is all consuming, drawing the viewer in with its visuals as well as audio. The sound is entirely location-recorded, desert wind cutting through the noise, grounding the work in a landscape that is both mythic and real. Flashing colors and relentless visual stimulation keep the viewer on edge, echoing. Running on a 9.5-minute loop, Afterparty does not let you settle — it demands that you look, and then confronts you with what you are looking at.