For New York-based artist Jonathan Monaghan, Extell works as a kind of conceptual sketch. A robotic voice tries to seduce us with promises of wealth and status, while the camera offers a view of a virtual Central Park, then leads us into a perfect, neat, impossible to inhabit apartment. The artifice eventually leads to a reflection: desire channeled towards unrealizable landscapes. What do these spaces hide? What does it mean to desire them?

Monaghan describes his growing interest in aesthetics and visual imagery used to advertise luxury condos as a way of examining desire and privilege. This piece represents a first approach to the subject. «There is a metaphor within these cold spaces, antiseptic and devoid of humanity,» says the artist. He adds that a new series of print pieces entitled Police State Condo is related to Extell, by evoking these spaces in the markedly surreal style that characterizes his work.

To further explore the work of Jonathan Monaghan, we invite readers to visit the documentation of his solo show at Hacienda La Trinidad in Caracas, curated by Kelly Gordon and produced by Backroom Caracas, and a brief conversation between the artist and Natasha Tiniacos, within the framework of this exhibition.

About the Artist:

Jonathan Monaghan (1986) is an artist and digital animator with a major in Computer Graphics from the New York Institute of Technology, with an MA in Art from the University of Maryland. His work includes sculptures, prints and animated video installations that defy the boundaries between the real and the virtual. His work has been widely exhibited in venues and institutions such as the British Film Institute (London), the Hirshhorn Museum (Washington, D.C.), Rotterdam International Film Festival (The Netherlands), in China, Greece, and the United States.