Karin Ferrari’s work is inspired by counter-cultural YouTube videos that attempt to understand “what’s really going on”.
Karin Ferrari is a visual artist based in Vienna, Austria. Her artistic research focuses on narratives of internet subculture on the threshold of academic theory, (political) paranoia, and speculative fiction. Ferrari’s work relates current topics of contemporary media theory to pop culture, occultism and fringe science. Karin Ferrari’s video series DECODING (THE WHOLE TRUTH) claims to reveal hidden messages.
Karin Ferrari’s work has been shown internationally: at the Antarctic Biennial 2017, at Blickle Kino in the 21er Haus – Museum of Contemporary Art in Vienna, at the Moscow International Biennial for Young Art 2016, at the Royal Military Museum in Brussels , Satellite Art Show in Miami, Videotage in Hong Kong, in Belgium, Trafo Gallery in Budapest, Tiger Strikes Asteroid in New York, Satellite Art Show in Miami on Arte Creative and Austrian National Television.
DECODING Katy Perry’s Dark Horse (THE WHOLE TRUTH)
HD Video / 20:00 min / 2015-2016
Karin Ferrari’s experimental docu-fiction claims that Katy Perry’s music video Dark Horse is the encoded depiction of the archaic ritual magic an occult elite uses to secure its power and the role that the pop star plays in this.
“The rhetorical form of DECODING Katy Perry’s Dark Horse (THE WHOLE TRUTH) by Karin Ferrari, is clearly inspired by a rich vein of independent documentaries on YouTube which purport to uncover or correctly analyze the symbolic manifestations of major conspiracies in our public life. Set in Memphis – Egypt – and suffused with hieroglyphic imagery, an ultra light pop-music video by the eponymous American star receives a dogged, and deadpan, analysis in a voice-over supplied by the artist. Like the underground media whose idioms it highlights, Karin Ferrari’s argument is by turns weirdly convincing and highly implausible.”
— Nadim Samman
DECODING Austria’s News (THE WHOLE TRUTH)
HD Video / 25:00 min / 2016
The experimental docu-fiction “DECODING Austria’s News (THE WHOLE TRUTH)” reveals hidden messages in the opening credits of Austria’s main national television news broadcast Zeit im Bild.
The film is inspired by counter-cultural YouTube videos on the threshold of academic theory, political paranoia and speculative fiction. The narration of Ferrari’s film is based on the symbolic abstractions of the world globe and of time in the news’ opening graphics. The analysis claims that these images are representative of the respective dominant world view and Zeitgeist. In an experimental and unorthodox way, Ferrari’s analysis relates current topics of cultural and media theory to pop culture and fringe theories. “DECODING Austria’s News (THE WHOLE TRUTH)” was created with the support of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Arts and Culture for the program Pixel, Bytes & Film of the Austrian national TV channel ORFIII.
DECODING The Mysteries of Antarctica (THE WHOLE TRUTH)
Experimental docu-fiction / Sound / 11:27 min / DCP HD / 16:9 / 2017
The short experimental docu-fiction ‘DECODING The Mysteries of Antarctica (THE WHOLE TRUTH)’ by Karin Ferrari claims to reveal the secret meaning of the symbolic and visual representations of Antarctica.
“Karin Ferrari’s perilous expedition through the obscure terrain of Antarctic ‘alternative facts’ has resulted in an appropriately warped documentary. DECODING The Mysteries of Antarctica (THE WHOLE TRUTH) will premiere on board the Akademik Sergei Vavilov scientific research vessel after it crosses into the Antarctic Circle.”
— Nadim Samman