Disco Beast

2016. video (color, sound), media player, screen or projector, 18 min seamless loop. Music by Furniteur.
Disco Beast follows a psychedelic unicorn wandering through empty commercial spaces, such as an abandoned shopping mall and a luxury hotel lobby. The work references both medieval iconography, such as the well known tapestries of a unicorn in captivity, and its appearance in popular culture to build a new mythology about modern confinement by technology and materialism. The unicorn as a symbol of otherworldliness in discord with banal, corporate spaces in the piece elicits subconscious anxieties surrounding globalization and consumerism. A series of sculptures related to the video installation were also created.

Disco Beast video installation at Palais de Tokyo Paris in June 2018
Still from the video art installation Disco Beast shows a mythical unicorn wandering consumer spaces.
Jonathan Monaghan video art Disco Beast about modern confinement by technology and materialism
Still from Jonathan Monaghans video art installation Disco Beast
Jonathan Monaghan video art Disco Beast showing a unicorn in a luxury hotel lobby
The video artwork Disco Beast is installed by projection in a blue room at the contemporary art space NRW Forum in Dusseldorf with young audience viewing on bench