Combining traditional photographic imagery with digital collages, the works in Richard Orjis’ Paris is Burning subvert any expectations of a singular visual text. Orjis manipulates black and white photographs taken or found while on residency in France, and finally adds an overlay of predominantly bejewelled images from the pages of glossy auction house catalogues.

Marie, with its Daliesque overtones, examines the social divisions (and delusions) in existence today, alluding as it does to that most well-known French figure of excess, Marie Antoinette. Her re-creation of Arcadian ‘country scenes’ on the grounds of Versailles, is well documented, and could not have been further from the dirty poverty of the French peasantry. Orjis presents his country farmhouse complete with weeds in the thatch and decay on the walls, and the sapphire eyes confront the viewer directly with a simultaneous vision of “decadence and decay.”(1)

The glittering facets and heightened colours of the gold and crystalline objects catch the eye at first, only later does the gaze take in the tonal contrast of the black and white photography. Divorced from its commercial context and the bodies it is meant to adorn, the jewellery trumpets a blatant message of conspicuous consumption and excess, especially noticeable against Orjis’ deserted farm and fields. Orjis’ ironic take on consumption devoid of necessity and consumption necessary for life is clearly seen in impossibleprincess: the ruby lips and pearly teeth cannot eat, they exist to be consumed, as do the rows of vegetables behind them.

Two works remain free from precious metals and stones: deafsymphony and inthatinstantwewerealive are studies of form, light and shadow. Orjis isolates sculptural details and by doing so gives them a life separated from their original context; they become organic forms twisting in space rather than mere architectural flourishes from a larger work.

Orjis extends his manipulation of context away from the purely physical images he has produced, as most of the titles of his works lead to random Tumblr sites. Tumblr.com is a micro-blogging site that allows individuals to post images, videos and links in a scrapbook format; these can be accessed by others who may share content, ask questions, and place comments on the page.

Viewing Orjis’ artworks through this multimedia overlay allows the viewer to re-contextualise them completely. The parallels between these ‘borrowed’ images and Orjis’ physical use of found imagery reinforces an idea of inter-connectivity. By choosing to activate the Tumblr links (eg: deafsymphony.tumblr.com), the viewer becomes complicit in the creation of the artwork as it is recreated each time they do so, as the site they find may have changed, or disappeared entirely.

1. Richard Orjis, Artist’s Statement, August 2012.