Pat Flynn - Sweet Tooth - (2020)

Sweet Tooth draws together abstract elements from Instagram’s most popular posts using #Utopia, into an evolving alien landscape inspired by the visual language of Moon Portal — a 1980s arcade game.

In his research, Pat Flynn delved into what Instagram dictated utopian, with the premise of creating an animation which reflected his findings and guided the viewer through an empty alien landscape.

Selected from a number of the top-ranking posts, Pat chose to base his landscape on dusk and dawn, the Apollo 11 homecoming ticker tape parade, Memento Mori — a symbolic reminder of the inevitability of death — and posts about Chocolate & confectionary.

A sunrise, followed by a black ticker tape parade and church bells bring together elements of apparent utopian imagery, in an unsettling, dystopian atmosphere. The artworks name is derived from accompanying hashtags to posts about confectionary Sweet Tooth for its connotations about being drawn to something which is bad for you.