WESLEY JOHN FOURIE

 HYPERBALLAD began as an online only project (on the Enjoy Website during the run time of maybe i’m just like a gust of wind, and) on the artists Instagram. Over the past two years, it has morphed into a public art project, currently viewable across Pōneke Wellington through City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi x Wellingtion Public Art Fund on the Courtenay Place Lightboxes (where a selection of 16 stills from the videos are exhibited), on Mason’s Screen through CIRCUIT at Mason’s Steps, and in the group exhibition The Brood at The Dowse Art Museum (on till June 2025).

The HYPERBALLAD series is Wesley’s take on the age old myth of Narcissus, with the black screen of a phone being “the pond”. The HYPERBALLAD’s investigate the way we curate and relay information in an online environment, using the Tumblr Girl trope as a starting point for works which straddle voyeurism and confessional modes of expression, looking at how these online interactions can foster parasocial relationships.
In the videos Wesley speaks directly through the camera and then sings along to love songs using prop microphones (bananas, wine bottles, coffee jars) to someone or “something” both real and abstracted on the other side of the screen.

The videos can be viewed at this link on the CIRCUIT Artists Moving Image Website

The HYPERBALLAD publication is scheduled to launch on April Fools 2025, and features writing by six emerging and leading arts writers from across Aotearoa.