Nodnol
exhibition
From Selfie to Self Expressionism
pends, right? But a sure thing is
that you don’t need to be an artist
anymore to have access to colours,
canvases etc. In the Western world
almost everybody owns a smart-
phone and became a “photogra-
pher”. Thanks to having quick ac-
cess to the latest technology, we
all use great cameras now, filters
(and some other silly applications)
to share the best pictures with the
world. In short, we all have the
equipment which is super handy
and always with us.
And still, I think that the mass of
selfies that I see (and I’ve limited
my social media use to Instagram
and LinkedIn) are used to share
likes, common interests and sub-
stitute face to face conversations
maybe because we’re living in dif-
ferent cities, countries, timezones
.… The majority of them, I must
admit, bores me. I’m missing a
message or inspiration, I’m miss-
ing the aesthetic side and the art in
it. I know and accept that we have
always been self-obsessed human
beings; we’ve always been “self-
iesh” throughout our whole exis-
tence. Ancient greek sculptures,
voluptuous female ceramic figures,
self-portraits, portrait paintings,
biography books, fashion maga-
zines etc. They all proof that we are
obsessed with our selves and our
bodies. And we really like it.
I think that the exhibition at the
Saacthi Gallery this year brought
the selfie into relation with the oth-
er forms of self-expressionism. It’s
ignorant to not acknowledge the
zeitgeist of selfies but what I real-
ly liked is that the exhibition was
inspiring and thought provoking
at the same time. Inspiring because
we should really be more inventive
and creative with our selfies. And
thought provoking as I personally
asked myself what the selfies reveal
about our personality, about our
insecurities? Nigel Hurst, who had
the idea about the selfie exhibition,
the man behind this great great
success at the Saatchi Gallery this
year said it rightly.
“The selfie is by far the most ex-
pansionist form of visual self-ex-
pression, whether you like it or
not … The art world cannot re-
ally afford to ignore it.” (Nigel
Hurst in the Guardian, https://
www.theguardian.com/artandde-
sign/2017/mar/30/selfie-as-art-at-
saatchi-gallery-from-rembrandt-
to-a-grinning-macaque)
And that’s my personal take away
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