Tarzania

Originally shown at Popcorn Noir, Rivans’ solo show at Saatchi Gallery, ‘Tarzania’ stages a filmic mash-up, fusing Hitchcock classics with iconic Johnny Weissmuller Tarzans. 

Above a floating picture postcard, Tarzan and his troupe stand at the foot of an erupting volcano, surveying the landscape below: a city in a state of decay, jungle flora creeping in to reclaim the man-made metropolis. The topology of the print symbolises the instability of the city in the twenty-first century: underneath a soaring airplane, New York’s Twin Towers hint at tempestuous politics, while the shadow of climate change looms large. Yet Rivans’ print is not without optimism: underground, pearlescent caves of diamonds hold the promise for a new day. Maybe the world can still be saved, ‘Tarzania’ seems to say, if we start to look back to nature and all of its wondrous treasures.