Drawing inspiration and material from the world of advertising, mass media, the Internet and the technological universe in general, Jordan Wolfson produces works that develop the potential of a wide range of expressive languages, including video, installation, robotics, augmented reality and photography. Instead of simply appropriating found material, the artist creates his own unique content, which frequently revolves around a series of invented, animated characters. This creative impulse becomes the starting point for disturbing narratives deeply linked to his personal imagination, through which he analyzes the cultural, social and political contradictions of today’s America and lingers on the deepest folds of the human spirit. Autobiographical references, mass culture heroes and heroines, stereotypical characters, or his own avatar leak out. The frequent use of CGI animation, facial recognition software, virtual-reality viewers, as well as other cutting-edge technologies, allows Wolfson to carry on his investigation into individuals’ relationship with the media, the information and the image economy. The recent work ARTISTS FRIENDS RACISTS (2019-2020) uses a new holographic technology, based on the presence of fans whose spinning blades are covered with micro LEDs. Animated characters, videos, symbols and words thus seem to float in space, similar to ghosts that go beyond the boundaries of the media systems in which they circulate. Drawing directly on the semantics of advertising devices, made up of recurring logos and pressing claims, the installation escapes from these recognizable coordinates to display a holographic, glowing and convulsive poetry. Initiated in 2019 and completed in January of 2020, just as the COVID-19 crisis began, this work reflects growing tensions as well the troubling socio-economic and political climate in which it was composed. Disturbing images of Dutch people in Black face, depicting Zwarte Piet, along White people seeing themselves as angelic figures, address the contradictions of racism in neo-liberal society. Inherent systems of racism that maintain White privileged are depicted here as some of the most overt problems in the contemporary world, that withstand despite indisputable injustices, and the madness of Trump and COVID-19 have made this as apparent as ever. Following the police murder of George Floyd in the United States, there has been a reckoning with Whiteness and supremacy structures. This piece serves as a snapshot of the world preceding this breaking point.