onsdag 18 juni 2014






"In JJ’s video, conversely, 
the mental patients’ humanity is nullified by injections and their chilly surroundings. 
The most surprising and disturbing moment come when, midway through the video, 
two of Kastlander’s eerie, red-and-black figurative doodles (the only non-white objects in the video) come to life. 
Through a computer-distorted squeak, they take over Kastlander’s vocals, and despite their two-dimensionality 
and blobbiness, these little guys are presented as the two most human characters in the video. 
There’s something desperately sad about their imitation of human functions such as language and song, 
and how they trump the human characters’ — nay, props’ — personhood.

In the ’90s, the mental hospital was used as a place 
where artists could most promiscuously flaunt their emotional spectrum;
 “All White Everything” depicts the same setting in total opposition to this idea. 
 JJ’s video emulates the anesthetized, dehumanized, turn music has taken
 — especially earlier this decade, it reflected a general cultural leaning toward aloofness 
(see also: the vocal fry pandemic). It presents its psych ward as a place where all feeling has been subjugated 
by the trappings of contemporary existence.  It’s essentialized, perhaps — and goofily aestheticized at times
 — but at least it’s not venerated as a vessel for catharsis."






 


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