Sophie Sebastiani:

 

 

 

photographs in the Jewett Sculpture Court and Jewett Hallway Galleries

 

 

 

archival inkjet print

 

 

"Somehow, you knew that everything was a bit odd, and a bit unreal, and often fake, but because there was no other picture of the world, and you were so within this system you accepted it as normal and just went on." - Adam Curtis

 

I have recently become interested in the concept of hyperreality; how technology is narrowing the gap between reality and simulation in a way that results in a very surreal and generally unstable perception of the world around us. At the same time, the structural inequalities in our society that maintain the social hierarchy of global capitalism have fractured the realities of many Americans by further widening the gap between the very wealthy and the poor, shrinking the middle class and decimating the American dream.

 

archival inkjet print

 

 

In large cities like Boston, the income disparities driving this hierarchy are glaringly obvious, no more so than in Back Bay in the area surrounding Newbury Street, a road lined with commercial buildings ranging from fast-fashion stores like Urban Outfitters and TJ Maxx on one end to luxury brands such as Cartier and Chanel at the other.

 

archival inkjet print

 

 

Through this collection, I wanted to illustrate a perspective of the chaotic, absurd reality of this ever-developing landscape while combining further aspects of surrealism in photoshop to disorient the viewer. These images depict the containers of social inequity that we are all trapped in and our ignorance in the face of it, adding in visual themes of corporate development and an apocalypse of biblical proportions that is invisible to everyone in the scene while the viewer remains helpless to intervene.

 

archival inkjet print

 

 

archival inkjet print

 

 

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