SHUNDO ODDISH REDUX by Skye Nicolas

Shundo Oddish Redux melds the enigmatic aesthetics of 16th-century Japanese yōkai scroll art with the unmistakable contemporary lens of augmented reality. The artist's four-year odyssey within the immersive realm of Pokémon Go as VICIOUSYOUTH constitutes the very marrow of this piece—an artistic pilgrimage fueled by the pursuit of exceptional digital creatures, none more compelling than the fabled "Shundo" Pokémon, a compelling synthesis of the elusive "shiny" Pokémon variant and the scarcely attainable "hundo" breed, renowned for their perfect individual values, bespeaks an intricate coalescence of rarity and significance. Beneath this vibrantly playful veneer lies an implicit homage to Jannis Kounellis' seminal "Untitled/12 horses, 1969,'' where the mélange of living creatures served as the conceptual heartbeat. The present work, Shundo Oddish Redux, navigates a contemporary dance between history and innovation. By casting VICIOUSYOUTH's personal voyage as both narrative and archetype, this tableau resonates with the digital zeitgeist, wherein the ethereal plane and corporeal reality intertwine. Echoing Kounellis, this piece beseeches viewers to dissect their rapport with the augmented realm and the treasures it harbors.

Nestled within the enchanting embrace of a meticulously crafted Japanese garden, an exceedingly rare variant of a grass-type Pokémon emerges through the veil of augmented reality. This is no ordinary encounter—it is a collision of tangible reality and the ethereal digital realm, beckoning us to meditate upon the nebulous boundary where existence converges with simulation. Painstakingly crafted with emojis, a subtle commentary surfaces that mirrors the precarious societal tensions in an era shadowed by ecological uncertainty. This provocative jumble of ideogrammatic symbols captures the very essence of our communication, imbued with satirical undertones and the weighty levity that has come to define our discourse within the Anthropocene epoch, where the specter of ecological upheaval looms large.

Skye Nicolas SHUNDO ODDISH REDUX 2023 PNG 1392 x 2474 px Edition 1/1