Romanticism: The 2k17 Edition

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Romanticism in the internet era has been changed and distorted, with the idea of the individual being replaced by a mass of voices, screaming as one into the emotional abyss of social media, surfing the internet, ‘liking’ and ‘sharing’ content that’s already been presented to a million other people, just like you. The new romanticist Instagram’s their private moments of sorrow, retweets a photograph of an evocative landscape with some accompanying nihilistic text whilst eating their vegan breakfast and tags their friends in a YouTube video shared on Facebook after being appropriated by the LAD Bible. ‘Romanticism: The 2k17 Edition’ features two artists, both of them being highly aware of their individual self, exploiting their bodies and the environments that they inhabit. Madeleine Andersson AKA ‘girl irl’ has spent countless hours crafting her own Instagram personality, effectively performing to the camera in a series of short, Amalia Ulman esque, looping videos that see her interacting with the materiality of the screen whilst reacting to the endless possibilities for self-determination online. Andersson being ‘popped’ out of existence by her own hand whilst eerily staring into the camera lens, for example, or continually taking her top off, to reveal the exact top underneath, over and over again. These quick, endless videos, are accompanied by a film by Soo Hyun Choi titled ‘Snow Romance’. In the video we see the artist take to the stage of a photography studio, which then proceeds to be filled with foam, creating an awkward juxtaposition between the beauty of Choi dancing as simulated snow falls across her face with the illusion-breaking way in which the whole piece is filmed, making one aware of the studio surroundings and the falsity of the snowflakes. In a sense, you’re drawn in by this broken narrative, having been shown behind the curtain from the beginning, as opposed to Andersson’s video series that seeks to convince the viewer of girl irl’s legitimacy, until the perfect image is shattered and the balloon is popped.

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Curated by Bob Bicknell-Knight