Rainbow Narcosis

2012. Video (color, sound), media player, screen or projector, 9 min. Edition of 3, 1AP. Music by Evan Samek.
Rainbow Narcosis follows a headless lamb through a series of otherworldly environments. With a visual style that shifts between photo-realism and video games, the work highlights the increasing disconnect between whats real and whats mediated. From the Palais Garnier to an art-filled modernist loft, the subject matter references wealth and power, while maintaining an unsettling ambiguity.
Photo of video installation Rainbow Narcosis by Jonathan Monaghan, projection in dim museum space, showing a white lamb with a hovering gold crown.

installation view from The Real Thing, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung City, Taiwan, 2015

Still from Rainbow Narcosis by Jonathan Monaghan, showing a floating red velvet crown floating in blue sky. Still from Rainbow Narcosis by Jonathan Monaghan, floating lamb’s head against the blue sky of the Paris Opera House. Still from Rainbow Narcosis by Jonathan Monaghan, showing headless lamb standing on cement against blue sky. Still from Rainbow Narcosis by Jonathan Monaghan, showing headless lamb standing on cement against warm sunset sky. Still from Rainbow Narcosis by Jonathan Monaghan, showing modern loft with black leather furniture.>
<img decoding= Still from Rainbow Narcosis by Jonathan Monaghan, showing a rainbow circle in the wood floor of modern loft. Still from Rainbow Narcosis by Jonathan Monaghan, showing a lamb robot and small man on grass. Still from Rainbow Narcosis by Jonathan Monaghan, showing man in suit floating into a rainbow portal.