The first wager is never the last ********************** The New Gods considers the figures that dominate contemporary life and asks what might remain of them centuries from now. Drawing on the visual language of branding, fashion, ritual and myth, the series presents distorted reflections of everyday systems as larger-than-life presences suspended in stark white space. These grotesque and exaggerated figures are pushed to their extremes. Power is inflated, charm is sharpened, authority becomes ceremonial. The distortions mirror the pressures of scale, repetition and global reach. When systems grow vast enough, they begin to take on mythic proportions. Ownership, expansion, seduction and belief are recast as characters with global presence. Money becomes offering. Consumption becomes ceremony. Ordinary transactions harden into ritual. The title suggests a simple idea: in an age shaped by commerce and scale, our myths have not disappeared. They have evolved. These are the forms they may leave behind.
THE NEW GODS
## WHY DID I MAKE THE NEW GODS The idea began in The Louvre. Walking through halls of marble gods and mythic heroes, I started asking myself a simple question. Who are the gods of the 21st century? Religion shaped centuries of human behaviour and still holds immense power. But in modern life, influence looks different. It is corporate. It is global. It is everywhere. The entities that shape our daily rituals, desires and economies are not mythic beings carved in stone. They are brands. They live among us. They influence politics. They shape culture. They create longing. They sell belonging. The New Gods is an attempt to imagine what might remain of these forces hundreds of years from now. Distorted representations of everyday systems, crystallised into grotesque mythological figures. --- ## WHAT IS THE NEW GODS ABOUT The New Gods uses the language of commercial photography and pushes it toward mythology. Recognisable corporate iconography is exaggerated into archetypes. Not to attack any single company, but to explore the scale of influence that corporations have over our culture and our lives. These figures are grotesque because scale distorts everything. When influence reaches billions, even minor impulses become amplified into something mythic. LANDLORD is not really about a board game mascot. It is about domination, accumulation and extraction. THE GIRL NEXT DOOR is not about a fast food chain. It is about transformation through wealth and the slipping of a mask once money changes hands. Each character represents a force rather than a brand. There is a macro and micro relationship running through the series. These corporate villains are magnified versions of behaviours we see every day. Ambition. Charm. Control. Devotion. Are these gods products of our culture? Or are they simply human instincts multiplied by economy of scale? --- ## THE ROLE OF GROTESQUE DISTORTION The figures in The New Gods are pushed to extremes. They are gloating. They are theatrical. They are unsettling. This exaggeration is intentional. When systems grow large enough, they begin to feel divine. They influence without being seen. They operate at a scale beyond the individual. By distorting these icons, I am not trying to ridicule them. I am trying to reveal the myth beneath the surface. Money becomes offering. Consumption becomes ceremony. Transactions become ritual. --- ## HOW IT FITS INTO THE NDE LINEAGE The New Gods sits naturally within NUKE DOT ETH because it continues the same concerns explored in STRESS and MANDATORY COMPLIANCE. There is the same tension between individual agency and larger systems. The same interest in power structures. The same use of highly controlled visual language to deliver uncomfortable commentary. What changes is scale. This new work arrives on Transient Labs as a series of short videos. The format expands, but the DNA remains consistent. Clean white space. Commercial polish. Grotesque archetypes. Social commentary embedded in spectacle. --- ## WHAT REMAINS The New Gods is not about outrage. It is about reflection. It asks what it says about us that we are so easily moved by marketing, mystique and scale. It asks what myths we are building now without realising it. In centuries past, marble statues carried the image of divine power. Today, influence travels through logos and screens. The New Gods imagines what happens when those forces are distilled into their most symbolic and aberrant forms. Not to provide answers. But to ask better questions.