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Fluxcup: Claim to fame through social media
Courtesy of FluxcupFluxcup is an artist of the Internet era
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Courtesy of Fluxcup
Fluxcup is an artist of the Internet era.
From behind the walls of an anonymous on-screen persona, the artist ' who has yet to reveal his real name ' celebrates and denigrates the Internet's hold on culture with a cynical balance of irony and seemingly deliberate obnoxiousness.
Gaining popularity through a variety of social media accounts, Fluxcup's claim to fame rose when he began uploading joke videos onto YouTube dubbed with his and his friend's voices.
The dubs themselves are by nature absurd and have a slew of Indonesian references, which, paired with the mostly international-sourced videos, resulted in an offbeat kind of humor that is more 'weird' than 'funny'.
His YouTube channel, which now has more than 20,000 subscribers, led to shorter videos on Instagram ' on which he has more than 14,000 followers ' and Twitter, where even more people get a taste of Fluxcup's particular brand of comedy.
A short viewing of his videos would very likely result in nothing more than a shrug, but Fluxcup assures us that they have meaning deeper than the funny dubs and accents.
The ultimately irony is in how the Internet has garnered Fluxcup a large audience that watches his clips, which are meant to be critiques of how the digital age has brought along a culture of constant-watching.
'My work stems from my uneasiness over the watching culture, the visual spectacle, which will continue to embed itself in society,' he explained, 'a society that has been over-contaminated with product information camouflaged by [attractive] packaging to sell itself'.
That irony isn't lost on Fluxcup, who sees himself as both a 'victim' and 'spectator' of this culture. His art is meant to satirize.
'So chances are, I will continue to find new methods in my creative process along with the growth of my variable audience members, as I have become a part of that circle myself,' he said.
If the element of cynical playfulness has become a major part of Fluxcup's videos, it is with reason.
He claims to have taken his moniker from a self-made 'nutritional supplement' meant to sustain the body's stamina and to be a substitute for marijuana. After testing the product, Fluxcup claims it had instead resulted in 'information dehydration, the arousal of laughter, damaged intellectual rights, sarcastic addiction, the triggering of anti-reasoning and general stupidity' and so he then took it as the name he would create under.
'In its own way, the name has become an identity for failed products of the information-era industry.'
Using a variety of media, which has included installation pieces, sound art, sculptures, public art, performance art, action stunts, debus (invulnerability skills like sword swallowing, fire eating or lying on a bed of nails) and salsa dance, Fluxcup said that he found solace in the self-deprecating nature of his art.
By admitting that those like him are as much as a problem as those he disdains, he has somehow laughed off that sense of public burden.
'I see comedy as a room to mediate culture, in which the room is filled with moments of irony that can make us laugh at ourselves, both as a citizen of the world and as citizens of a third world country. Significantly, comedy is intrinsically funny when it is somewhat connected to the socio-cultural realities of certain countries,' he said, adding that watching these kinds of comedies that he makes also provides society with a mirror in which, as an artist, Fluxcup is able to criticize in a persuasive manner.
'Because comedy does not necessarily need to result in a radical change through its criticism, but it is enough to tickle social culture.'
Perhaps Fluxcup's art can be summed up with his chosen logo ' a wavy-haired blond Ken-doll lookalike with an ironic 1970s mustache. It's silly, but with meaning ' just like the self-appointed pointers Fluxcup gives himself in creating.
He lists them: 'Do the things that scare you on a regular basis, be boring, steal everything, seek failure and distortions and make a mess.'
To learn more about Fluxcup, visit his YouTube channel at 'Fluxcup'.
