5 Things to Know About Jon Rafman, the Montreal Artist Who Just Collaborated With Balenciaga
According to Vogue’s Sarah Mower, the spring/summer 2019 Balenciaga show left the audience “so stunned that people were transfixed in their seats for a good few seconds after it ended.” The label’s creative director, Demna Gvasalia, is certainly known for pushing the envelope when it comes to fashion and design, but what she’s referring to here isn’t so much the clothes but the setting. Even before the first look came down the runway, social media was flooded with videos of show-goers sitting in a strange, jarring tunnel, with hypnotic visuals playing across all the surfaces, including the floor and ceiling.
Turns out, this immersive art experience was brought to you by Montreal-based artist Jon Rafman. Here, five things to know about him and his provocative work.
1. He met Gvasalia at Art Basel
The two hit it right off, culminating in a collaboration that drew from both their strengths and interests to create a compelling, albeit disorienting, narrative. “It was a marriage of kindred spirits,” Rafman tells Vogue. Makes sense, considering much of his career has been spent musing on the relationship between humans and the internet— “my work explores new technologies and how our society, our consciousness, our interrelationships have changed”—and the fact that Gvasalia’s vision for this collection played along similar themes. “I always had this idea of a video tunnel, like being inside someone’s digital mind,” Gvasalia explained post-show, and Rafman executed that by creating a 2000 square metre tunnel entirely out of video screens. “At times, the backdrop stirred a sense of optimism,” recounted Washington Post’s Robin Givhan. “At others, it suggested a world in which we have lost the fight against climate change, where we’re living in a maelstrom of heat while the ground beneath us heaves and convulses.”
2. The intersection of technology and humanity is his sweet spot
He has long been fascinated by the blurring lines between physical and virtual reality, taking on the role of both voyeur and commentator as our world’s obsession with the internet deepens. In a 2014 essay for Art Forum, he noted: “As the Internet became a ubiquitous part of daily existence, I shared in the excitement of these new communities and was excited to explore the newly forming virtual worlds. Sometimes I see myself as a member of the community, but in many cases I approach the subcultures as if I were a passing explorer or an amateur anthropologist.”
3. 9 Eyes is one of his most talked-about projects
The ambitious project began on Tumblr in 2008, when he started spending hours looking through the millions of photographs taken by Google Street View’s nine camera cars. “There’s this excitement that potentially I was the first to ever look at this image because there’s no cameraman — it’s just a robot,” he told the New York Times. “There’s something inherently exciting knowing that you might be the first person to ever gaze upon a scene that happened in the past. It’s almost like looking at a memory that nobody really had. Photographs are so connected to human memory, but these are photographs of no one’s memories.” His curation of photographs eventually turned into an exhibit, and later a book.
4. He’s exhibited his work all over the world
Besides his native Montreal, he has shown in museums and galleries in Chicago, Los Angeles, Berlin, Buenos Aires and New York. His video exhibit at Frieze New York last year was one of the art fair’s most popular displays, exploring humanity’s increasing dependence on technology and the internet. “I want to understand how my mind has been corrupted by my constant consumption of the Internet,” he explained to Vogue. “To what extent are we structuring the world and to what extent is the world structuring us?”
5. He really loves baths
In a recent Globe and Mail piece outlining his daily routine, we learned that “Rafman begins his day very early with a breakfast of bagels, lox and cream cheese from Fairmount Bagel, which he enjoys while still in bed, after which he scrolls through his social media feeds, tends to emails and work notes with the help of Siri before getting up to take a bath, a work habit inspired by Gertrude Stein. (Rafman had an oversized tub custom-designed for this purpose.) After a quick coffee, the artist enjoys a three-course Greek lunch at Milos, followed by a Vodka Red Bull with lemon served slightly below room temperature, before heading into the studio to work. At 5pm, he takes an hour and a half nap, another bath, and returns to studio after dinner.”
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://fashionmagazine.com/flare/celebrity/jon-rafman-artist-balenciaga/&title=5 Things to Know About Jon Rafman, the Montreal Artist Who Just Collaborated With Balenciaga&picture=https://fashionmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Balenciaga-S19-170-800x533.jpg&description=According to Vogue's Sarah Mower, the spring/summer 2019 Balenciaga show left the audience "so stunned that people were transfixed in their seats for a good few seconds after it ended." The label's creative director, Demna Gvasalia, is certainly known for pushing the envelope when it comes to fashion and design, but what she's referring to here isn't so much the clothes but the setting. Even before the first look came down the runway, social media was flooded with videos of show-goers sitting in a strange, jarring tunnel, with hypnotic visuals playing across all the surfaces, including the floor and ceiling.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BoWQxdsFZLo/?hl=en&taken-by=imranamed
Turns out, this immersive art experience was brought to you by Montreal-based artist Jon Rafman. Here, five things to know about him and his provocative work.
1. He met Gvasalia at Art Basel
The two hit it right off, culminating in a collaboration that drew from both their strengths and interests to create a compelling, albeit disorienting, narrative. “It was a marriage of kindred spirits,” Rafman tells Vogue. Makes sense, considering much of his career has been spent musing on the relationship between humans and the internet— "my work explores new technologies and how our society, our consciousness, our interrelationships have changed"—and the fact that Gvasalia's vision for this collection played along similar themes. “I always had this idea of a video tunnel, like being inside someone’s digital mind,” Gvasalia explained post-show, and Rafman executed that by creating a 2000 square metre tunnel entirely out of video screens. "At times, the backdrop stirred a sense of optimism," recounted Washington Post's Robin Givhan. "At others, it suggested a world in which we have lost the fight against climate change, where we’re living in a maelstrom of heat while the ground beneath us heaves and convulses."
https://www.instagram.com/p/BoY3lNMgcY5/?hl=en&taken-by=jonrafman
2. The intersection of technology and humanity is his sweet spot
He has long been fascinated by the blurring lines between physical and virtual reality, taking on the role of both voyeur and commentator as our world's obsession with the internet deepens. In a 2014 essay for Art Forum, he noted: "As the Internet became a ubiquitous part of daily existence, I shared in the excitement of these new communities and was excited to explore the newly forming virtual worlds. Sometimes I see myself as a member of the community, but in many cases I approach the subcultures as if I were a passing explorer or an amateur anthropologist."
3. 9 Eyes is one of his most talked-about projects
The ambitious project began on Tumblr in 2008, when he started spending hours looking through the millions of photographs taken by Google Street View's nine camera cars. "There’s this excitement that potentially I was the first to ever look at this image because there’s no cameraman — it’s just a robot," he told the New York Times. "There’s something inherently exciting knowing that you might be the first person to ever gaze upon a scene that happened in the past. It’s almost like looking at a memory that nobody really had. Photographs are so connected to human memory, but these are photographs of no one’s memories." His curation of photographs eventually turned into an exhibit, and later a book.
4. He's exhibited his work all over the world
Besides his native Montreal, he has shown in museums and galleries in Chicago, Los Angeles, Berlin, Buenos Aires and New York. His video exhibit at Frieze New York last year was one of the art fair's most popular displays, exploring humanity's increasing dependence on technology and the internet. “I want to understand how my mind has been corrupted by my constant consumption of the Internet,” he explained to Vogue. "To what extent are we structuring the world and to what extent is the world structuring us?”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BlwV8CsFBBS/?hl=en&taken-by=jonrafman
5. He really loves baths
In a recent Globe and Mail piece outlining his daily routine, we learned that "Rafman begins his day very early with a breakfast of bagels, lox and cream cheese from Fairmount Bagel, which he enjoys while still in bed, after which he scrolls through his social media feeds, tends to emails and work notes with the help of Siri before getting up to take a bath, a work habit inspired by Gertrude Stein. (Rafman had an oversized tub custom-designed for this purpose.) After a quick coffee, the artist enjoys a three-course Greek lunch at Milos, followed by a Vodka Red Bull with lemon served slightly below room temperature, before heading into the studio to work. At 5pm, he takes an hour and a half nap, another bath, and returns to studio after dinner."
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