Rustle 2.0, 2016

Em’kal Eyongakpa
1981, Mamfe, Cameroon. Lives in South West Region of Cameroon and Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Em’kal Eyongakpa creates installations, videos and performances based on the concepts of network and system as applied in the fields of biology, botany and technology. His artworks examine the notions of balance and interference by inter-relating objects of different origins. Rustle 2.0 (2016) consists of the creation of an environment where organic elements are confronted with others considered artificial or resulting from humankind’s impact on nature. Walls covered in mycelium evoke the idea of interconnected networks, in reference to the Internet; digital bronchi are shaped to resemble Africa and Latin America. The ‘2.0’ in the title refers to a cybernetic system update, placing nature and culture as parts of the same whole, and not as separate or autonomous entities. Eyongakpa suggests the idea of something organic in the survival and conservation of different systems – whether digital, ecological or political – revealing an uncanny familiarity between them.