Tribe series – ‘Tribe – War’

‘Tribe – War’: a never-ending cycle of conflict

The second work in SMACK’s Tribe project is a live, generative piece in which characters of different colours fight to occupy the central space on a plain blue screen. “Classical depictions tend to be wars between countries or based on religion,” says Meijdam, “but there’s this new kind of civil war emerging online in which people are immersed in their subcultures and everybody thinks their own little bubble-tribe is the only truth there is.”

To reflect this, the characters in ‘Tribe – War’ are programmed to fight based solely on their colour, reacting automatically against their counterparts of a different shade. The absurdity of this conflict is underlined by the empty setting, cartoonish figures and bright tones, while the endless nature of the work reflects the permanence of violence. “I think the power of the piece is that it’s about universal human behaviour,” says Bela Zsigmond. “It’s an infinite war and we never learn from it. That’s a painful mirror for us as human beings.”

→ About Tribe series: The Power of the Group Before the Mirror

For Tribe, SMACK developed a population of approximately 300 digitally animated characters, ranging from walking periscopes and swastika-wearing bugs to multi-headed aristocrats and muscle-bound machos. Each allows for variations in texture and colour, enabling the artists to deploy customised versions in different scenarios including ‘Tribe – City’, ‘Tribe – War’, ‘Tribe – Apex’ or ‘Tribe – Tower’, while individual portraits are brought together in collections such as ‘Tribe: Golden Circle Characters’.

Many of these characters were developed during the COVID pandemic and reflect behavioural tropes associated with this time. “People were living in their own safety bubbles,” explains Ton Meijdam. “A lot have suits on because they’re afraid to interact with other people,” while others are walking hand-sanitisers, robot cleaning products and super-hero medics.

Various characters are recurring favourites, already present in ‘SPECULUM’. These include an oversized head with robot legs and SMACK’s updated version of the Venus of Willendorf, created by blending images of the Palaeolithic fertility figure with footage of Kim Kardashian. What they all have in common, says Meijdam, is an inflated ego: “They carry this message saying, “Look at me! I’m very important.”