Interested in world-building and language, L.A. based artist Sam Balfus, aka Balfua, creates personified abstract objects called Slollas which inhabit a fantastical spirit world called the Sayssiworld. Fuckiffilai Onethouzandranon is a fiendish spirit looking out over the Sayssiworld mountains on his search for the unagi tail. Sam Balfus gained a BFA in Art & Technology School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2016. His work has been shown in galleries and publications across the US, Europe, and South America. His practice incorporates music and content about the mythical gooniverse with art band Znzn Kanshan.


Fuckiffilai Onethouzandranon is a fiendish spirit looking out over Sayssiworld mountains on his search for the unagi tail

Fuckiffilai Onethouzandranon and the unagi

_ENXERGA

Strength in the Crystallisation

Quarter Veteran

𝑺𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒆𝒈𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕

PARADIGM N7

Sylphs sisters

ammonite swamp³

Balanced Turmoil Ceremony

Sorcerer

“This is not the earth, where things are weighed down. This is the air, where porn physics reign. A furnace where hundreds of thousands of dollars burn to make real life feel like someone’s aesthetic blog. They must live in this hyper-real atmosphere like alien birds."

Psycho Nymph Exile by Porpentine Heartscape

Parasomnia are undesirable behaviors and experiences that occur during partial arousal from sleep. These disturbing phenomena, including night terrors and sleepwalking, occur during those undefined transitional periods when we are caught between dreams and reality. 

The artworks in this exhibition provoke a similarly disconcerting liminal state. Criss-crossing timelines and warping dimensions, the artists use the flexible parameters of digital space to develop their own eerie universes. Bending the laws of physics and the expectations of biology, they create these uncanny new worlds in exquisite detail. Their dystopian scenes resemble nowhere but remind us of everywhere. Through creating this terrifying aesthetics of anxiety, they provide a surprising and unwelcome contemporary critique. Hauntingly beautiful and intoxicating, the nightmarish visions attract our attention like moths to a flame. As with parasomnia, we are held helplessly captive to these perturbing dreams. 


Fuckiffilai Onethouzandranon and the unagi

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