As Within so Without: The battle of Authenticity in the Digital Age

Jermaine Ervin Jr. shares stories about internal conflicts though his collaborative and experimental digital art.

February 2024 | ALYSSA LUNA

Meet Jermaine Ervin Jr., a 24-year-old visionary with a passion for a variety of creative pursuits. As a mixed-media digital artist in the area, he shares a diverse collection of collaborative projects through his page @social.warz on Instagram.

Although it’s a smaller platform with a little under 200 followers, it is just starting as the artist explores where he wants to take the platform and ways he can create a wider influence. Through his collection of posts airing in January 2024 titled, Social Warz Vol. 1, Jermaine showcases his vulnerability and shares pieces inspired by introspection, his personal experience, and growth.

JANUARY 2024: Titled Social Warz Vol. 1: Self Reflection, this is the first project on Jermaine’s page: A video compilation.

Jermaine’s first project, captioned “Social Wars: Vol. 1: Self Reflection," is a collection of mixed-media pieces that explore the theme of self-reflection. The first post is a video reel with editing and various camera footage compiled with the 2017 song, “Noise,” by The Neighborhood playing in the background. Through an Insta 360 x3 camera lens, we see a woman running around in a field near a shed. With a vignette, sepia, and a wide fish-eye lens, he creates visual layers of mystery, as if we are witnessing something we shouldn’t. This idea is further amplified as we see a shot of a silhouetted man in a hoodie, with duct tape stretched between both hands, coming in to tape the camera.“The way he puts the tape over the screen’s face is kind of as if he’s covering the viewer's eyes for them to go into their inner self and self-reflect, ” Jermaine shares on the creative choice.

Themes of reflection come across as literal as the woman crosses by a mirror standing by a shed. She is seen in three sections of the screen at different points in time musing on her reflection, as the lyrics in the background say ‘I don’t wanna be like you.’ I wondered why he chose a woman to be the model in this piece, and he shared, “because I wanted to,” which simply wasn’t gonna cut it for me (lol). After pressing further and some introspection, Ervin reveals, “Women are life, they are the key to everything,” followed by, “Truthfully I had run into Mia and was already about to work on a project and it just worked out that way.” Interestingly enough, Jermaine says the shed was unplanned, but played out perfectly in the creation process of visual storytelling as they had just discovered it while shooting in the feild. “The shed is like coming out of your hometown and kind of coming into the new world and new age and trying to figure out who you are as an individual, and so yeah she’s just going through that,” Jermaine says.

Continuing with the darker hues, we witness self-reflection represented again in the second photo of the series within this wide shot. There is a mirror that can be seen with the reflection of a man sitting in between worlds in a sense, with feet hanging out of the mirror and onto the physical ground. He is wearing a flannel, baggy pants, and vans, and is clutching his wrist. His head is a TV that reads, “We are in a brain-washed generation.” Jermaine incorporated the drawing from Pinterest. On the second slide of the post is a poem written by Jermaine that reads, “Time goes by watching time / it’s hard to see past controlled minds / fed to you like a prescription / it’s easy to get sidetracked watching side missions.”

The third post in the Social Wars: Vol. 1 series, is a black and white wide-shot in the woods, with a mirror in the very center similar to the second. The story unfolds as we now see a man (Jermaine) in the mirror’s reflection, standing with a suit and tie on. He incorporates mixed media characters from Pinterest into his photography, with this one being a drawn figure outside the mirror. He looks to be a younger boy to the viewer approaching it as his back is facing us.“It’s kind of playing into that sense of who you are isn’t who you see in the mirror,” he shares. “I wanted to illustrate a distinct moment between past and present between two different realities.”

The next photo in the series is a shot of Jermaine’s friend, Kendall Henderson, modeling with his head covered in plastic wrap in a horror movie-esque manner. This final piece of the collection is in color, unlike the preceding two, alluding to the sense of transcendence out of black and white thinking, coming out of the war one may have in their own beliefs. The poem that Jermaine wrote to tie into this piece reads, “Wrapped up in emotions / Trapped in your flesh / The only way to break free / SPEAK!” With so much representing the need to speak on the internal battle within oneself, this final shot - although jarring- is extremely thought-provoking, working as an effective shock to the system. “It’s a way to drastically express that e’s like trapped in his head, and the only way to break free is to speak,” says Jermaine

The final shot in the collection takes us back in a full circle way. Mia Carolina, modeling in this shot, stands in a field, has seven mirrors surrounding her, all reflecting a black and white image of her screaming or standing constantly. The coinciding poem reads “Paradox / It’s too much to think through / It’s hard to believe / there is another version / of yourself haunting you. - Jermaine Ervin Jr.” 

Although the poem writes a tale of someone haunted by their past, she can be perceived as content and at peace with the past, shrugging it off as to say ‘it is what it is’ as she kind of stands there relaxed next to them. “Seeing someone go from rage to calm is pretty scary,” Jermaine says when describing the paradox between her and her past reflections.

“She’s allowing us to look at the reflections that she carries with her,” says Jermaine. She looks angry in many of them, reminding me of my favorite depiction of female storytelling in cinematography being the one and only, female rage. Defined as, “an ancestral and inherited response to the struggles, oppressions, and wrongdoings that women have been subjected to,” the woman in the mirrors may be expressing that to some degree. In showing the audience her rage, it will be known and recognized, ensuring it would it could never being erased.

Jermaine was allowed to present his Social Warz Vol. 1 mixed-media photography collection at the OFC Creatives gallery in Downtown Austin this past January. He says that he hopes to do more collaborative storytelling in the future and create community and unity through his work. His creativity knows no bounds - from his surrealistic approach to storytelling and his up-cycled clothing reconstructions, Jermaine is a true innovator, creating unique tie bags and flared pants, proving he's not afraid to get his hands dirty and defy convention.

His page is a showcase of his artistic exploration, whether it be storytelling through mixed media videography, photography, poetry, or uniquely crafted up-cycled clothing. Through @social.warz Jermaine wishes to continue collaborating with like-minded individuals and inspiring others to break free of self-imposed limitations by his example of creating out of authentic expression.

Be sure to follow his page and stay tuned for new inspiring creations, and future projects to collaborate on. “I’m looking to collaborate with creatives, whether that be filmmakers, photographers, actors, models, or other digital artists. Anyone who wants to create and live a lifestyle of authenticity is welcome.”