Chronological Events

The tale starts in the later half of the 2010’s; emerging from the dark web was Mark Savon, former webmaster felonious extraordinaire, reimagined as cyber guru meets London scumbag. Mark landed in my Facebook feed through the group greyhat SEO for a cyber revolution (terrorist sleeper cell memes). His oddly spiritual message led to a pseudo-philosophical group DM session on the foundations of truth. Mark’s transformative journey fed the discussion; he expressed that his spiritual awakening had brought forth at once an inexorable path to him becoming a guru and an understanding that he knew no truths. He feared his lie-powered guruity would be baseless—or, would it be based on an unspoken understanding between him and his followers? That even though Mark would know of no truths, he would know of a spiritual state of being true among falsehoods.

When Mark mentioned his newly acquired London pad, and its only redeemable quality being that it was “tiny enough to replicate in an afternoon,” I requested to visit him, and do just that. My interest in recreating this ‘slice of life’ stemmed from a reading of research on Warhol’s tragically kitschified work and life. The idea that an artist’s persona could be their artwork drove me to daydream about other modes of creation: leftovers à la Daniel Spoerri, the artefacts of someone’s day-to-day, or an unusual lifestyle an sich, could somehow all be signed off as artworks, further muddying the waters of art as an institution. Recreating Mark’s flat signified an attempt in this direction, potentially solidifying his existence as meaningful—which human life certainly is not by default.

To be continued…