ily2
An eight-piece series in the POST-MODERN body of work
*Exhibited as part of the group exhibition What Feels Real presented by The Hosting, May 2021
*Exhibited as part of the group exhibition What Feels Real presented by The Hosting, May 2021
Artist Statement
Our modern era is an age of false connectivity, exchanging true connection with a digital infrastructure riddled with drawbacks and shortcomings. We have settled for broken, ephemeral interfaces that breed deception, miscommunication, and falsehood. It is a space that divides us, that harbors insincerity—carrying with it a risk of misinterpretation and mistranslation from person to person.
But what about those relationships where both individuals really are sincere? What about the moments when those feelings we have for one another persist beyond the means through which they’re transmitted? In the midst of it all, the reality of us across the screen perseveres. And so we hope.
ily2 is the beauty of the reciprocation, the second half of the sentence—begging the question ‘But what if I feel it too?’ Snapshots of you, small sounds, words typed up in boxes—that which is felt is revealed through these moments we exchange. Sometimes what is cast out into the electric abyss finds its way, beaming back again like echolocation. Sometimes there really is a someone looking back at you. Sometimes the photographs aren’t a lie.
This series celebrates the inalienable human desire for connection with one another. It is a journey centered on the reality of those bonds that triumph over the digital barrier. The ideal does exist—when sometimes it’s merely circumstances in between a perfectly real you and a perfectly real me. These exchanges prefigure what’s to come—that tomorrow is on its way, that this broken means of connection will not persist, that these countless feelings I have for you will find their way. We’re an eternity compared to this. And even when all we have is a cumbersome, imperfect technology linking us, our drive carries on.
But what about those relationships where both individuals really are sincere? What about the moments when those feelings we have for one another persist beyond the means through which they’re transmitted? In the midst of it all, the reality of us across the screen perseveres. And so we hope.
ily2 is the beauty of the reciprocation, the second half of the sentence—begging the question ‘But what if I feel it too?’ Snapshots of you, small sounds, words typed up in boxes—that which is felt is revealed through these moments we exchange. Sometimes what is cast out into the electric abyss finds its way, beaming back again like echolocation. Sometimes there really is a someone looking back at you. Sometimes the photographs aren’t a lie.
This series celebrates the inalienable human desire for connection with one another. It is a journey centered on the reality of those bonds that triumph over the digital barrier. The ideal does exist—when sometimes it’s merely circumstances in between a perfectly real you and a perfectly real me. These exchanges prefigure what’s to come—that tomorrow is on its way, that this broken means of connection will not persist, that these countless feelings I have for you will find their way. We’re an eternity compared to this. And even when all we have is a cumbersome, imperfect technology linking us, our drive carries on.
