Axel Void
untitled mural
South Facing Wall of the Gothic Building
About the Exhibit
Artist: Axel Void
Contributors: Maverick Mura, Lauren Day
Created: June 2022
This piece is a note on human inter-relational experience. The work presents a highly specific, anonymous interaction between neighbors in the digital realm.
The image is sourced from a post on the Neighbors app, a location based message board designed to connect Ring doorbell cameras into a network of private surveillance, with the intention of “always knowing what is happening in your neighborhood with real time, hyper local safety.”
The posting was created on June 18th, 2022 by an anonymous neighbor 3.4 miles away from the site of the mural. The post is titled: “Unknown visitors, Strange kids at my door 10:30 pm do you recognize them?” The Ring doorbell footage shows a young man at the door for about one minute; the footage is grainy and black and white, he is hard to make out and shuffles from side to side; a friend waits in the background on a bicycle. Twelve commenters on the post argue on whether or not the boy appears suspicious, or if he is merely looking for his lost dog; casing the house or calling for help.
This piece proposes a discussion point on irrational fear, the changing nature of surveillance, and an overarching sense of paranoia in modern society.
Location
102 South High Street, Akron OH
About the Artist
Axel Void (Alejandro Hugo Dorda Mevs) was born in Miami in 1986 to a Haitian mother and a Spanish father. He was raised in Spain from the age of three, where he was strongly influenced by classical painting and drawing. Axel Void has been in contact with graffiti writing since 1999. He studied Fine Arts in Cádiz, Granada, and Sevilla, and based himself in Berlin until moving to Miami in 2013, where he currently resides.
Axel is a multimedia artist driven by a passionate interest in the art of storytelling. Inspired by truth in all its forms Axel’s compositions are presented with an almost journalistic intrigue. With a focus on people as part of a global community he explores the cultural and social structures which regulate our interactions and habits. The ordinary is elevated through his passionate reimagining, and whether disturbing or whimsical all compositions exist in search of a journalistic journey towards truth. Through paint, photography, sculpture and video installation, Axel's characters ascend to metaphors for the human condition; mourned or celebrated as they are contextualized through our collective memory.
