Ben Young

Works

Graduated from Royal College of Art

Selected by Maxa Zoller

The Sons of l'Homme Doré, 2006

After running around for hours at the RCA show I just wanted to sit down somewhere calm. I found shelter in a quiet room with an ultra-comfy leather sofa and a huge flat screen. This turned out to be a lucky strike, because it was Ben Young's space and I greatly enjoyed his 'The Sons l'Homme Doré'. In this film, I found everything I missed in contemporary video practice: experimentation, caprice, imagination and a great deal of dexterity (call me old-fashioned, but I dig skills). Young tells us the story of the sons of the 'Golden Man', some über-survivors of the atomic war (if I remember correctly). We follow our gorgeous heroes on their adventurous journey through the land of computer animation, psychedelic landscapes, surreal cut 'n' pastes, a journey through the kingdom of digital Technicolor, follow the joystick brick road - and at the end we have to defeat the 'Giant Crap'. 'The Sons l'Homme Doré' is truly original and a real refresher. Is there even some political content in this film? Are the Golden Sons metaphors for a clone society, a future projection of a world after WWIII? Maybe. I am curious to see where Young takes us next. (Maxa Zoller, 2006)