Spray revolves around a seven-month research project for which London-based artist Ella Fleck developed the fictional character ‘Jonathan Michaels’ in a variety of online forums. The community, interacting on Discord and in other self-organized online spaces, is composed of heterosexual men experimenting with the use of pheromones, neuro-linguistic programming, and other ‘subliminal’ manipulation techniques in attempts to ‘acquire’ sex and relationships from women. Fleck has used her experiences as an interloper in these groups to produce a body of work that incorporates themes of somatic infrastructures, hetero-male fantasies,
intrusion, policing, psychoanalytic/therapeutic discourses, and biochemistry.
The exhibition is made up of an audio installation, a ducting pipe installation emitting pheromone fog in the gallery, and prints following the fictional narrative of ‘Jonathan Michaels.’ The basement of the gallery will feature a live feed of the Discord server’s general chat.
The work has been composed into a radio-play with video game composer Calum Bowen (or bo en) and an AI voice model. An accompanying book with the same title of the exhibition will be published during the course of the show.
