During this project I chose to visit the Zabludowicz Collection and see their exhibition ‘World Receivers’. The Exhibition, curated by Tiffany Zabludowicz, is pioneered by Cindy Sherman and Isa Genzken with fourteen other artists also involved. The space has been used by these artists to explore the theme of individuality and its links with identity, politics and sociology with the freedom we have today. I decided on going here to explore my CTS research as I have been writing about identity and individuality and how it comes into play with our social media world. I discovered this exhibition was on due to my following of Signe Pierce- an artist featured at the space. I adore her aesthetic and sociological reasonings for the work she creates as they more often than not relate to ideas im interested myself to explore.
Within the space Pierce has her own installation titled ‘VORTEXTUALITY’. The space is covered in her signature holographic which is almost hidden by a sheet of fabric which alludes to the idea from the outside that firstly; is it somewhere where were ‘allowed inside’ and secondly; one youre inside it is almost as if youre closed off from whats happening outside. The first interaction with her installation did spark many thoughts when analysing the use of the fabric, of course it is not uncommon to simply mask an exhibition space like this but the fact we question ourselves in wether were socially ‘allowed’ to view an interactive art piece was significantly interesting. Inside the colourful space you almost feel like you been transported into one big infinity mirror, the holographic materials manipulating the structure of the room itself and confuses you on where you are Pierce’s aim throughout the exhibition is to create portal like installations that could transport you to another place- this is very connotive to how I receive the installation to be representative of social media. Online we are transported to a alternate universe of ourselves or whom we pretend to be. To add to this point, the use of the holographic sheets and the lighting on top of them also repeats reflections- this reminded me of a real life glitch effect which is an unreal way to represent social media in real life as its almost the online world being shown in real life. The way the sheets are hung are also very intriguing-as she wanted to represent identity tone fluid, I believe she had them loose and relaxed from the ceiling to show how identity isn’t rigid and structured. On the tv placed in the room,not only can you see yourself in this ‘world like’ situation but every few seconds a filter is changed and added on the screen to manipulate the image. Filters/ effects used mimicked the photo booth app on Mac which distorts how you see your appearance.
Seeing Signe Pierce’s ‘VORTEXTUALITY’ was super interesting for me. Although the space was only small I felt due to the distortion I was in almost another world and not a box room. I also felt the use of the TV made me feel like within this small room I was a performer or the only thing of importance- I took away from this as a member of the audience that online and in our virtual reality of social media Pierce was trying to show how we are infact an online performer and identity is a highly unique, fluid and layered concept.
eleanor thorndyke 