Private Assurances

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The title of the 29th online exhibition by isthisit? was titled ‘Private Assurances’, pertaining to how all three of the works either questioned the idea of privacy, or allowed the viewer to engage in other peoples’ private moments. Alice Watkins’ website, ‘How can this be private?’, is an ongoing archive of found texts taken from the titles of porn videos found online, with the names growing increasingly more violent towards women as you scroll down the seemingly endless page. Although the thumbnails of the videos have been discarded, the view count and number of ‘likes’ are still displayed, continuing the question that was originally posed by the title of the work, how can this be private? Flanking the website is Silvia Carderelli-Gronau's video 'Share' which features the artist and her son, exploring a city whilst enabling the viewer to discover the complexities of their relationship. It’s an incredibly subtle experience, featuring Gronau interacting with various spaces and locations that the boy introduces her too, dancing in tandem with her son’s skateboard as their relationship is wordlessly presented to the viewer. Finally, there's Lottie Walsh's ambitious film 'Where We Go Next (A Place That's Neither Real nor Fantasy)' which explores various unnamed territories, mixing real world locations with virtual creations. These private landscapes are continually surveyed from the sky, occasionally lingering on various intricate details and idiosyncrasies of the different environments.

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​​Curated by Bob Bicknell-Knight