Ryan Trecartin is at the forefront of a generation of artists using video and digital media to new aesthetic and critical ends. His work borrows from and expertly manipulates the languages and forms of popular culture to create densely layered video narratives presented within highly sculptural and theatrical settings.

Presented in the UK for the first time, Trill-ogy Comp (2009) comprises three works: K-CoreaINC.KSibling Topics (section a), and P.opular S.ky (section ish). Featuring a cast of family and friends (in particular long-time collaborator Lizzie Fitch) and the artist himself, these works are characterised by a feverishly high-pitched, fast-paced style and the constant negotiation of notions of narrative, gender and belonging. Their dominant themes revolve around consumerism, youth culture and the complete fragmentation of identity in a world where personae are continuously multiplied and erased, downloaded and over-written.

The films radiate the kind of wired energy you might feel after a long night surfing the net, and are shaped by the characteristics and aesthetics of the Internet. While each component part is tediously mass-produced, made up of Ikea furniture and TV show one-liners, the possibilities this world presents lie in the non-formulaic. Nothing is fixed, but everything is always re-calibrating into new forms. There is no single point of view. Characters address themselves in the second and third person. Nor is there a singular sense of self. Objects and persons merge, transmogrify and become one another. Identity is performed in situ, as much defined by the scenography as by any inherent character traits. For Touched, the films are presented as immersive installations in the sprawling, labyrinthine basement of a former hardware store (the building, said to have the longest shop front in Britain, runs almost the entire length of a street). Moving through and between the interconnected rooms, viewers become part of the artist’s transitional world.

Trill-ogy Comp doesn’t so much ‘touch’ in the gentle sense as pull you in, shake you up, utterly absorb you, and then set you down, reeling. The works are visually, aurally and emotionally assaulting, leaving our senses disrupted and our thought processes open to new perspectives on the world. 

I absolutely loved this video!! The fast pace, the flashy colours, the fact that you had to strain your ears to make out what whas being said, the over-exaggeration of the body language and attitude! - I love it because it doesn't make sense at first glance even thought it captures and allures you to keep watching! Its abstract videography in a way!