A Life of Its Own: American Psychowebsite (with installation, print and video adaptations)
2023 - ongoing
Available online:
www.alifeofitsown.sarabezovsek.com/american-psychoand
www.permanentbeta.network/episode/183
A Life of Its Own: American Psycho reconstructs the narrative of
American Psycho using only internet material - memes, GIFs, screenshots, mashup videos, fan edits, YouTube reenactments, Reddit discussions, TikTok videos, and other found online content. Rather than presenting the original film, the work traces its digital afterlife, showing how Patrick Bateman has evolved into one of the internet's most persistent cultural archetypes.
The project explores how a satirical critique of toxic masculinity and 1980s yuppie culture has been transformed through online communities into an aspirational figure associated with "sigma male" culture, looksmaxxing, and self-improvement trends. This phenomenon escalated from unironic TikTok reenactments of Bateman's morning routine into the figure of Clavicular - an influencer whose comparisons to Bateman reveal how the film's irony has been entirely lost on a generation that idolises him. This evolution became the final chapter of the project, reflecting how online archetypes don't just stay online-they grow up and shape real-world identity.
By organising thousands of fragments into a single webpage, the work reveals how films continue to evolve long after their release - constantly remixed, reappropriated, and claimed by different subcultures, acquiring a life of their own.
Exhibitions:
The Lure of the Image, The Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, Finland, 2026 (upcoming)
The Lure of the Image, C/O Berlin, Berlin, Germany, 2026
Layered Realities, Fotomuseum Hilversum, Hilversum, Netherlands, 2026
The Lure of the Image, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland, 2025
