Projected every night of the Festival onto the facade of the Drake Hotel, the new work from Radical Friend (Los Angeles-based directing duo Kirby McClure and Julia Grigorian) randomly collages images from contemporary mass culture’s darker expressions — murder, bikers, deserts — into a hypnotic, dystopic, multi-layered projection wall.

Radical Friend combines commercial media practice — advertisements and music videos — with haunting gallery-based installations. Their new work, Sweat, presented every night of the Festival on the exterior of the Drake Hotel, collages images from contemporary mass culture's darker expressions — murder, bikers, deserts — into a hypnotic, dystopian, projection wall. This rational but random universe conjures up the internal brain functions of Cronenbergian heroes, as their neurological mechanisms become increasingly compromised. The images suggest a journey towards a cybernetic “ singularity, ” denying human emotion and mythologizing the union of man and machine. Variations of intensity between hard-cut, aggressively paced barrages and moments of peace and image clarity suggest this union is unfinished, fragile, and susceptible to internal implosion.

Presented in collaboration with The Drake Hotel, 1150 Queen Street West. Video installation runs from dusk till dawn. September 5 to 15.