For Kids
People today have the chance through social media to share every aspect of their daily lives. There is a cultural pressure fueled by modern media and consumerism where one is compelled to filter this digital identity into something flawless and exciting. The paintings in my series Digital Identity are a combination of my favorite memories and moments, integrated with recognizable imagery from social media sites. The painting’s color schemes are purposely inverted, forcing the audience to rely on a device such as a Smartphone to view the piece in its entirety. Using AR goggles, the viewer now sees the abstracted forms within the paintings transform into an entirely new visual narrative.
The process that I want the viewer to engage with is two-fold. Upon first impression, the paintings themselves are constructed with dismal color-schemes or unrecognizable features. Once the audience interacts with the digital inversion, the paintings shift to a bright, cheerful and dynamic pallet. This is intended to be a metaphor for how social media has the tendency to make people’s worlds appear more desirable. The consequences of this consumer-driven reality are worth a deeper critique.
