Celestial Throne parodies the tropes endemic to a classic game show, specifically Jeopardy!, where clues are provided and contestants guess the answers. The clues in the game show expose coded internet dialect, iconography, memes, and aesthetics used by far-right hate groups to disseminate the movement’s political ideologies, spread messages of animosity, and lure recruits. The video iteration of this work features a series of characters all performed by the artists. The characterizations deconstruct racial stereotypes, while the videos are a pointed critique of far-right internet extremism. For BlackFlash’s collaboration with EQ Bank to highlight digital arts, the artist uses the medium of AR and the interface of the digital screen to expose three clues from the board.
This project is supported by EQ Bank as part of an ongoing partnership that highlights Canadian digital art practices, featuring commissioned works showcased in print and through expanded digital formats.
Download the free Artivive app by scanning the QR code above or visiting this link on your mobile device. Open Artivive and point your camera at the following three images to expose three clues on the Jeopordy board.
Rah Eleh is a visual artist and a PhD candidate at the die Angewandte (University of Applied Arts) in Vienna, Austria. Rah’s work has been exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally at spaces including: Personal Structures Venice Biennale (ECC, Palazzo Mora), The Juno Awards (Canada), National Museum (Oslo, Norway), Vögele Kultur Zentrum, (Pfäffikon, Switzerland), Nuit Blanche (Toronto), Museum London, Vienna Art Week (Austria), Carleton University Art Gallery (Ottawa), Williams College Museum of Art (Williamstown, Massachusetts), Miami Art Basel, Nieuwe Vide (Haarlem, Netherlands), SomoS Art Haus (Berlin, Germany), and Onassis Cultural Center (Athens, Greece). She has been the recipient of numerous awards including: Long listed for 2023 Sobey Art Award, Chalmers Arts Fellowship, numerous Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Art Council Grants, SSHRC for her MFA and the CSG Doctoral Fellowship for her PhD. She has been awarded several residencies including the ONX Studio (NYC, NY, 2024), Intergenerational LGBTQ Artist Residency (Toronto Island, 2019), Koumaria Residency (Greece, 2016), Studio Das Weisse Haus (Vienna, 2014) and the Artslant Georgia Fee Residency (Paris).
Rah Eleh is represented by de Montigny Contemporary and Vtape, Canada’s leading artist-run distributor for video art.
Website: www.rah-eleh.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elehrah/?hl=en
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rah.eleh.3
This article is published in issue 41.3 of BlackFlash magazine. Get this issue
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