IN MY OWN TIME:
For this project we were asked to create an indirect portrait of ourselves inspired or using our social media. Immediately after being given the assignment, I started thinking about my social media and worried I was not active enough. However, I did post whenever something important or fun happened in my life (a fun trip, a dinner with friends, family vacations…) I then realized that I was the common denominator in all of my pictures, yet other places and other people were the ones that shaped me and made me who I am.
I originally thought about doing a GIF with all my posts but I ended up not liking the idea. I then went ahead and printed all of my pictures out and decided to cut myself out of all of them. Trying to show how I am not the important one, even though I appear in all of my posts. I am shaped by the events that are going on around me.
After doing this, I wrote the dates on top of every picture to show a time sequence and finally I cut them into individual “posts”.
Artist references:
Allegra Cortese´s response to my project:
Being in the pictures yet not being in the pictures was quite genius in my opinion. At first I didn’t really notice much. It just seemed like instagram pictures placed in rows. Though once I looked at it closer, I noticed that there was a silhouette in pretty much every picture. I really liked the fact that she took herself out of the pictures by simply cutting herself out of them. It made sure to convey the meaning that places and friends are more important and that they are what shaped her. The meaning behind that was quite interesting and touching. Looking at it from a different perspective, I think it makes a nice memory because she is forced to look back at memories canceling herself from the memory and mainly thinking about her friends and location.
My response to Allegra´s response:
I was quite happy with Allegras response since she has really understood what I wanted to do and express through my project which ultimately means that this idea is quite understandable and not very complicated which is important for me and my work. We talked about the form that these images could take in the future and she suggested hanging them from a cord that could go from one side of the classroom to the next, representing a timeline. I found this very interesting because I do not lose the concept and the passing of time is shown.
FINAL PROJECT:
For the final project, I hung all of the pictures from a red cord from one wall to another, creating an intimate space which I thought was important since my pictures and the pictures in them show intimate moments with friends and family. Also, I wanted the piece to be interactive and I wanted people to actually go ahead and touch the installation and see the pictures, try to find me in them, even though I am cut out. I want people to submerge themselves into what my social media life has been like for the past few years and understand how the situations and the people have made me who I am today.
