Ghosting (The Breakfast Club)

Ghosting (The Breakfast Club)

Ronnie Van Hout, 2020
Single-channel HD digital video, colour, sound, duration 12 min 25 sec
Courtesy of the artist and Ivan Anthony

A quintessential film of the 1980s,The Breakfast Club is based on five stereotypical high school students – a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal – stuck together on Saturday detention in the library. This remake or ‘ghosting’, in which Ronnie van Hout plays all five characters, emphasises the awkwardness of our teenage years and offers some Brechtian comic relief on the idea of the social distancing that has become part of our everyday lives.

 

Spheres: An Online Video Project

An online series of moving image works exploring social distance and personal environments including works from Xin Cheng, John Chrisstoffels, Conor Clarke, Ronnie van Hout, Sonya Lacey, Janet Lilo, Sione Monu, James Oram, Nova Paul, Bridget Reweti, Sriwhana Spong, and Matavai Taulangau.

Considering the recent popularity of the word ‘bubble’, the Spheres series examines how we interact, and our emotions, thoughts and sensations in relation to our surroundings. German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk described societal structure spatially, as spheres expanding from intimate bubbles to globes and foams. These works offer different perspectives on social distance, personal environments and the close radius of home. 

We invited artists to share something of their spheres, the ideas and places they live with and around. Their works touch on a variety of concerns, from environmental issues to consumerism and the importance of preserving cultural knowledge. Experienced online, they also reflect on representation and the contemporary circulation of imagery and information, the transfer to digital that allows us to reach out into the world.