Showcase|Group Exhibition is currently exhibiting at Fresh Gallery Ōtara from November 23, 2019 until February 1, 2020. Event Link
Showcase|Group Exhibition was previously exhibited at the Nathan Homestead from December 15 2018 until February 4, 2019. Event Link
“Showcase brings together the work of eight cousins of the Pacific. This exhibition aims to honour the ancestral knowledge that has been handed down to these eight artists and how this information is interpreted in the current digital age.”
“#OOTD”, mixed digital media
‘#OOTD’ looks at the construction of narrative thru adornment thru a virtual simulation. Just like how fashion is used to express identity in the ‘real’ or organic world, specific choices of clothing is used on the digital to simulate an image or an identity. Although devoid of their original meaning, more ‘poor images’ are collaged onto these pixelated clothes. PNGs of brands and jpegs of screenshots and photographs downloaded are assembled to embellish. What once were signifiers devoid of their original meaning, combine to form a new meaning. The end result? a hybrid of the idealised or the rejected self; a variety of fragmented realities.
Living as a marginalised individual, generating an online reality allows for rebellion against the physical one. Avatars, both in game and in social media such as Instagram, not only present our ideal image but also hold power by influencing and determining how society interacts with our actual organic body. This work proposes not only a coping mechanism but also as a weapon. It is a tool of empowerment by occupying a virtual space to assert ourselves in the ‘real’ world.
Mariadelle |Abbey| Gamit 