Scarlett Shaney
“Excerpts from In Real Life, a zine and interactive series of webpages exploring female identity online and the way women represent and perform femininity in our 21st century internet culture.”
Shaney, S. (2015)
At the end of last week I came across of Scarlett Shaney’s In Real Life (2015) a body of work which explores the juxtaposition and “…performative nature of social media, and how women in particular use this to experiment, play and curate how they are seen.” (Shaney, S. 2015). Her work like Baritone uses frames from instagram to border around images, however aesthetically her work is closer to Molly Soda or Signe Pierce, with references to early internet, Y2K and vapourwave aesthetics assisting the narrative of the performative online notion of self. Her method of display being a zine, aligns with Soda’s practice of small zine runs, however I would say the layout here feels more reminiscent of the works of Petra Collins and Arvida Byström.
Curated by Girls
I actually found Scarlett Shaney’s work on the Curated by Girls website which describes itself as “…a platform that promotes diversity & equality through the works of emerging and established talents from around the world, with a strong focus on female-identifying creators.” (Curated by Girls, 2016-). The site appears to showcase quite a few photographers and artists, most are recent graduates or current students, who have projects or series on social commentary around the internet and social media and the impact on identity and aesthetics.
Jasmine De Silva
De Silva’s How to Build Your Human (2018) resonated with me in regards to her intent, she writes:
“Constructed of a hand-made hyperreal world, expressing the human obsession and desire to be perfect through a limitless cycle of physical reconstructions of the self.“
De Silva, J. (2018)
This intent is not dissimilar to topics I have previously discussed in the series Life in Plastic (2014) and Transhumane (2019), yet visually the outcomes are very different and whilst De Silva incorporates doll body parts, the focus remains on the very human female models who are repeatedly changed and remade through wig changes, makeup changes, and cut out features that dangle in front of them. De Silva’s work feels reminiscent of Alex Prager’s practice in the sense of retro nostalgia.
Ewa Doroszenko
“While the Internet can seem like a place disconnected from our physical worlds, much of the activity that occurs there deeply affects how we feel about things outside of it. Modern technology very often makes women dissatisfied with what they see in the mirror.”
Doroszenko, E. (2018)
Doroszenko’s The Body Editor (2018) also resonated with me in that her work questions the reality portrayed on the internet, however where I am questioning the reality of the location and the notion of relationships, Doroszenko is commenting on the mass adoption of beauty apps which ultimately led to dissatisfaction of the self visually as opposed to my intent where I am looking at the dissatisfaction of relationships, friendships- a sense of the authentic lie.
Sylvia Rybak
Rybak’s images deconstruct and separate elements of the body, hands, eyes, mouth, hair from one another objectifying and subjecting the anonymous model in her images, the outcomes are interesting however I am not entirely sure I agree that Rybak’s images truly show the following:
I tend to reduce the role of the humans in my images to purely aesthetic and playfully arrange along with other objects in a studio. In my most recent series, I explored the concept of online personalities and the obsession to create a better, online version of oneself.“
Rybak, S. (2017)
If anything I would say her work is more surreal in nature than commenting on online personalities.
Emily Langford
Langford, better known as Vinyl Mannequin states her practice is “…an embodiment of the Uncanny Valley. I aim to create imagery which at first glance appears to be a vision of a kitsch/girly aesthetic, but once the image is examined and taken in by viewers, it becomes an unsettling and sometimes morbid depiction of reality. I also thoroughly enjoy composing my own miniature ‘film sets’ where my surreal shoots take place.” (Langford, E. 2018) Her work to me is very reminiscent of Rachel MacLean’s, in the kitsch aesthetic and topics covered, but also in that Langford often uses self-portraiture as a vehicle to create an assist her narrative of the surreal uncanny. Her work also reminds me of Sherman’s Film Stills in that the subjects Langford tackles are ultimately the cliché, the stereotype of a persona albeit one on the internet as opposed to the cinematic world.
Amber Drew Sparrey
Amber Drew Sparrey, known as her alter ego Ambie Drew, explores fabricated femininity, gender and identity in the digital age. Her work depicts kitsch stereotypical feminine beauty commonly adopting the colour palette of soft pastel pinks. Again like Langford her work to me draws strong parallels with MacLean’s practice, in the representation of the kitsch aesthetics that run throughout the piece. She writes on her website that Eternal Beauty, Internal Hate (2018) is about repeating attempts to become beautiful and states: “The more Ambie Drew tries to become externally beautiful and desirable through beauty products and materialistic objects, the more she has become loathing, objectifying and critical of herself internally. There are moments when she enjoys it, for example when she gets a new lipstick or wig. But then she stares at herself until she hates it. And then the process starts again.” (Drew, A. 2018)
References
Figures
Figure 1 Shaney, S. (2015) In Real Life. [Online] Available from: http://www.scarlettshaney.com/in-real-life#13 [Accessed 30/03/2020]
Figure 2 De Silva, J. (2018) How to Build Your Human. [Online] Available from: http://www.curatedbygirls.com/jasmine-de-silva.html [Accessed 01/04/2020]
Figure 3 Doroszenko, E. (2018-) The Body Editor. [Online] Available from: http://ewa-doroszenko.com/bodyeditor/ [Accessed 02/04/2020]
Figure 4 Rybak, S. (2017) Untitled. [Online] Available from: http://www.curatedbygirls.com/sylvia-rybak.html [Accessed 02/04/2020]
Figure 5 Langford, E. (2018) Untitled. [Online] Available from: http://www.curatedbygirls.com/emily-langford.html [Accessed 02/04/2020]
Figure 6 Drew, A. (2018) Still from Eternal Beauty, Internal Hate. [Online] Available from: https://ambiedrew.com/eternal-beauty-internal-hate/ and http://www.curatedbygirls.com/ambie-drew.html [Accessed 02/04/2020]
Bibliography
Curated by Girls (2016-) About. [Online] Available from: http://www.curatedbygirls.com/about.html [Accessed 29/03/2020]
De Silva, J. (2018) How to Build Your Human. [Online] Available from: http://www.curatedbygirls.com/jasmine-de-silva.html and http://www.jasminedesilva.com/articles [Accessed 01/04/2020]
Doroszenko, E. (2018-) The Body Editor. [Online] Available from: http://www.curatedbygirls.com/ewa-doroszenko.html [Accessed 02/04/2020]
Drew, A. (2018) Still from Eternal Beauty, Internal Hate. [Online] Available from: https://ambiedrew.com/eternal-beauty-internal-hate/ and http://www.curatedbygirls.com/ambie-drew.html [Accessed 02/04/2020]
Langford, E. (2018) Untitled. [Online] Available from: http://www.curatedbygirls.com/emily-langford.html [Accessed 02/04/2020]
Rybak, S. (2017) Untitled. [Online] Available from: http://www.curatedbygirls.com/sylvia-rybak.html and http://www.sylviarybak.com/ [Accessed 02/04/2020]
Shaney, S. (2015) In Real Life. [Online] Available from: http://www.scarlettshaney.com/in-real-life#13 [Accessed 30/03/2020]
Shaney, S. (2015) Superhero Magazine: Issue 7 The Avatar Gen. IRL/URL Culture. [Online] Available from: http://superheromag.com/avatar_gen/irlurl-culture/ [Accessed 01/04/2020]
Jasmine Murray Photography 