Elliott Hundley (b. 1975, Greensboro, North Carolina) builds mural-scale collages—or bas-relief sculptures—for the digital age. Each is a universe in which we lose ourselves in the myriad details yet find ourselves in a world not all that different from the real one: chaotic and crazy and all-consuming. Hundley’s works take us on a whirlwind tour of ancient Greece by way of Antonin Artaud, where we find not the rationality and balance of classical antiquity but the mayhem made famous by the plays of Euripides and Sophocles, whose chronicling of rape, murder, and worse makes the present look like a walk in the park. In doing so, Hundley’s dense constellations of imagery invite us to ponder the relationship between individuals and the vast sprawl of the human race, along with the overdose of visual stimulation available, 24/7, on the internet and via instantaneous digital communication. The image glut of modern life takes sublime shape in Hundley’s mixed-media pieces of participatory theater, turning us loose in a world supercharged with desire and dread.
