SOMA PILLS

In my piece, multicolored tablets carry perfect utopian worlds within them. I attempt to bring the association between spectacle in real life and soma in the fictional world, as the drug, just like spectacle, is akin to manufacturing illusion and false impressions to bring people comfort, warping their comprehension of the truth. As Guy Debord has suggested, “The spectacle that falsifies reality is nevertheless a real product of that reality. Conversely, real life is materially invaded by the contemplation of the spectacle, and ends up absorbing it and aligning itself with it.”[2] The selected image materials that I use for the work’s background cover a range of politics, military, economic and entertainment consumption, including the video recording of the grand military review in China, the opening sequence of a daily news program named Xin Wen Lian Bo, a popular cooking program, recreational facilities in the playground, a firework show and an advertisement of a certain brand of coal excavator. Here, “reality emerges within the spectacle, and the spectacle is real.”[3] The marching legs in the guard of honor, dazzling fireworks, the powerful excavator, or the mouthwatering food presented on the show all these attempt to make people think they must be excellent, but people will never realize the truth behind it. “The spectacle presents itself as a vast inaccessible reality that can never be questioned. Its sole message is: “What appears is good; what is good appears.” The passive acceptance it demands is already effectively imposed by its monopoly of appearances, its manner of appearing without allowing any reply.”[4]