Nathan Vincent, “Be Good for Goodness Sake” (detail) (2012), yarn, wood, bench, astroturf, cameras, in collaboration with Alex Emmart of Mighty Tanaka (all images courtesy the artists)
CHICAGO — In the age of social-networked identities, when every private thought is often public declaration, what does it mean to be “good” or “bad”? Our words become performances, our self-portraits become selfies, and we are present as online brands. It becomes hard to take emotional moments seriously.
In the exhibition Be Good for Goodness Sake, now on view at Muriel Guépin Gallery in New York, artists Kathy Halper, Nathan Vincent, and Iviva Olenik consider the implications of such an existence, manifesting virtual moments in tactile ways — with yarn, linen, fabric, embroidery. Using images and phrases found both online and in the American cultural vernacular, the artists stitch these immaterial internet offerings.
Viewing works of art about social media through a screen rather than inside a gallery proper presents a different challenge. Here I am, flipping through the pieces on the gallery website and opening them on my computer. I start to imagine the online original source material before it was co-opted and interpreted by these artists. I am having a once-removed experience of IRL artwork that comes from URLs.
Read the story on Hyperallergic: http://hyperallergic.com/99735/how-good-you-must-be-when-everyone-can-see/
