Forthrite Gallery
Oakland, CA
December, 2014
About the Exhibition:
My work presented here at Forthrite Gallery explores how photography and the internet are changing the ways that I am relating to people. I will start with the phrase: look at me. I am beginning to accept that, as an artist, that is often what I am saying online and off. Look at me. The photos say this. Look at me. sharing my work on social media says this. The flags in this series explore what it's like for me to create and promote an artist identity on the internet. Sharing artistic production through social media means engaging with the typical forms of communication within that community. In the context of facebook, that is mostly comprised of condensed phrases that carry an ambiguous sheen. The words on the flags are pulled from comments left under fb posts that I and other artists have created as we promote our artwork. In reality, these comments act as short form solidarity, of recognition of content shared.
Whether or not we identify as artists, we all share content and we all say look at me. We all receive solidarity and acknowledgement online and this series asks the viewer to consider the ways in which they communicate this solidarity. Are they following a script? too rushed? nervous about expanding their comments? bored by the content? As I continue to promote the brand that is me the artist I am exploring the reality of this situation and the humor and emptiness of most online communication. The idea that, as artists, we must accept the current state of online communication that online sharing facilitates. Solidarity and recognition towards everyone have taken the form of drive-by exclamations: condensed snippets of meaning. It is both sad and funny and still a very human experience for me. These words remain loaded and are full of expression, however, they also appear in little empty white boxes. It is unclear where they are coming from and where they are going.
I'm changing in that I'm beginning to create a context for why I am attracted to photographing everyone around me. In the simplest of ways, I see that everyone wants. We are instilled with and create desires, needs and aspirations. That is mysterious and beautiful to me. Knowing this helps me building compassion for other people. I want just like everyone else. These film photographs of other people represent a want that I have. They are my way of saying look at me, of iterating whats often like to be a self promoting artist. I throw myself out there with the goal of sharing my artwork and sometimes end up feeling like a magician, a brand ambassador, a pusher, wild and sometimes completely out of my element.