REVIEWS / REACTIONS / VIDEOS AND FOOTAGE FROM THE LAUNCH OF 'SOUL IN THE MACHINE : A JOURNEY OF THE SOUL THROUGH A TECHNOLOGICAL WORLD'
// The fantastic launch night video by Rory Barber, shot on July 4th 2013 for the Soul In The Machine opening night, at the Rich Mix, London. This incredibly atmospheric and stunning video piece is an artistic response to the launch night's live arts performance, laced with commentary from Khyle Alexander Raja and the lucid lyrics of David J pugilist, voice of the machines...
// Launch night review by Remona Aly, freelance journalist & editor [Guardian]
Remona Aly
A balmy evening in the heaving capital heralded the launch of an exceptional and surreal exhibition at London’s RichMix studios.
A culmination of five years of meticulous work, Khyle Alexander Raja’s art is a welcome departure from convention and breaks new ground in a radical and exciting way.
Raja seeks to harmonise contrasting worlds on his canvas, it’s an unlikely marriage at many levels: ethereal and the earthly, sci-fi and the spiritual, material and the divine. If his art were music, some may hear a symphony of sound (frappé of hard rock, dubstep and classical to my ears), others a cacophony of off-key notes.
The depth and detail in these pieces are extraordinary and it is clear that time, passion and possibly portions of sanity have been spent on each (Raja uses a rotring pen with a metal nib measuring a fine 0.13mm among his utensils).
As you navigate pieces like ‘The Gateways’ and ‘The Desert’ and get drawn into the depth of layered visuals, you sense the beyondness of things – of time and space – and you are transported to a parallel universe that Rick Deckard would feel at home in. One tweeter observed how ‘incredibly disturbing’ the pieces were.
The dramatic, unforgiving landscapes/skyscapes are perhaps unsettling for some, yet this is precisely the challenge that Raja poses through his work – he breaks us out of the comfort zone and propels us headlong onto new plains of thought about art, encouraging reflection on our origin, our technological and spiritual advancement, and our future fates.
A fresh and dynamic aspect to the launch was the live art performance that interplayed the energy, vibrancy and skill of graffiti artist Mohammed Ali and that of Raja to merge their respectively unique art forms. Throughout the demo, spoken word poet David J Pugilist added his creative narrative to complete the enthralling experience.
While some remarked on the echoes of Leonardo da Vinci in Raja’s work, as well as resonances of Manga, the Fifth Element and Star Wars (I thought I spotted an AT-AT walker), Raja also forges his own unique creations on his own terms, and we are left to feel we are not only walking through art, but traversing a vivid and untamed imagination. This is innovative, unchartered territory where the young artist has successfully thrown open a gateway to a world of stimulating and alternating possibilities of art that only prophesy an intriguing future.
Remona Aly is a freelance journalist, editor, and media professional with a strong focus on British Muslim issues. She is the Campaigns Director at the Exploring Islam Foundation which specialises in creative resources on Islam and Muslims across media platforms. Previously, she was the Deputy Editor of emel – a vibrant British Muslim lifestyle magazine which was the first Muslim magazine to launch nationwide in the UK to also target a non-Muslim readership.