2021.07.17.Sat - 08.29.Sun
Upcoming : ４面鏡 / Quad Mirror
(By myself, For myself, to myself & ourselves)
KOM_I / Kawita Vatanajyankur / Lu Yang / Masako Hirano / NTsKi / tomotosi
Opening Reception : 07.16.Fri. 18:00-21:00
at: PARCEL
1F, 2-2-1 Nihonbashi Bakurocho, Chuoku, Tokyo 東京都中央区日本橋馬喰町 2-2-1-1F
Open :
Wed / Thu / Sun 14:00-19:00
Fri / Sat 14:00 - 20:00
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Closed : Mon, Tue
Through various social networking services such as Instagram, we are constantly exposed to numerous selfies. When the selfie first appeared on the Internet, it was perceived by many as an image associated with narcissism, and other forms of evanescent self-expression. Today, Instagrammers and other artists of all kinds are using their own selfie more strategically as a tool/means to generate personal and social relationships. The question is: when, with whom, where, and under what circumstances are you photographing yourself? Their followers also decode the messages in the images and reflect them in their own sense of values.
In the past, self-portraits were reserved for special spaces such as museums and galleries. However, in the present day, these have taken on a new role as an expression that connects the perspectives of all small groups (tribes) and points out where these communities are heading.
The six artists participating in this exhibition come from a variety of nationalities and backgrounds, but they all share a common interest in using themselves as a strategic tool for social interaction / communication. The exhibition will explore the redefinition of self-portraits in the age of social networking services (SNS) , from the conventional art of self-portraiture, through the diverse works of the artists, including photographs, videos, 3DCG animations, and an installation.
Notes on ４面鏡/ Quad Mirror（By myself, For myself, to myself & ourselves
1. Infrastructure
Who hasn’t touched their smartphone before seeing this text today? Who hasn’t connected to the Internet or opened a social networking site? In this era, smartphones, the Internet, and social networking sites have become the infrastructure, or lifeline, of our daily lives. We can no longer recollect a time when these inventions were nonexistent, and we are now living in a society that is distinctly different from the one before and after these inventions, in which we currently cohabitate with.
2. Mirror
In retrospect, we have invented many things throughout history that have transformed our lives and society. Starting from primitive things like fire and the wheel, to the steam engine and semiconductors, there is no end to this list. However, the invention of the mirror is worth noting when we consider its importance in art and culture. The glass mirror that uses tin amalgam as a reflective material, which is similar to the glass mirror used today, was invented in Venice around the 14th to 15th century. This invention gave birth to the genre of “self-portrait” in post-Renaissance paintings, which eventually led to the development of the idea of “self” and “self-reflection” leading to the birth of a literature form, the novel, telling the story of one’s inner life, which further led to the establishment of the consciousness of individual human rights (*1). The invention of reflecting one’s own face has transformed not only the world but also oneself.
3. Front Camera and SNS
Just as the invention of the mirror gave birth to the self-portrait, the invention of the camera later gave birth to the self-portrait in the field of photography. It was in the early nineteenth century that the camera was invented as a device using a photosensitive compound to fix the reflected image on a medium, but it was not until the 1960s that this tool came to be used as a kind of artistic expression rather than simply recording the artist’s appearance. (The fact that the self-portrait as an early expression was a representation of the feminist movement and counter-culture may be an extension of the establishment of individual human rights awareness with the invention of the mirror, as mentioned earlier (*2)). Furthermore, in the modern age, with the addition of front cameras mounted on the screens of cell phones, self-portraiture has regained its original function as a mirror. By being able to look back at oneself staring at the screen from almost the same angle as one’s eyes, an image that is almost a mirror image can be projected, and thus the “selfie” as we see it today was born.
4. Division
In “LA CHAMBRE CLAIRE”, Roland Barthes described the experience of portrait photography as “four I’s”. That is, “the person I think I am, the person I want people to think I am, the person the photographer thinks I am, and the person the photographer uses to demonstrate his skills” (3). Is this division possible in the selfie? Perhaps the division presented by Roland Barthes can be reduced almost entirely to the act of one person. However, the selfie does not take place in such a closed self-reference, but is included in the experience of being released into the social network. It is a precondition for being exposed to countless eyes from the other side of the mirror. Manovich’s “aesthetic society” is a place where “social media groups (tribes) maintain themselves through aesthetic choices and experiences (4)”. From the analysis of the number of postings, it is clear that a society that is formed by SNS users posting selfies is already in existence. The experiences surrounding the selfie that occur in this society are the subtitle of this project, “By myself, For myself, to myself & ourselves”.
In self-portraiture, there is a tradition of critical use of self-portraits in society, such as that of Amalia Ullman, continuing from Cindy Sherman. However, “Quad Mirror” gives us the opportunity to think about a series of actions or movements called the “selfie”, which is a self-portrait that has been newly born as a different direction from those, and which is hashtagged, judged by AI, becoming an interface between the individual and society, and being circulated on our timelines.
*1 How We Got To Now /Steven Johnson
*2 Self Portraits of Contemporary Women, Exploring the Unknown Self / Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
*3 LA CHAMBRE CLAIRE / Roland Barthes
*4 Instagram and Contemporary Image / Lev Manovich
Text by Kenta Ishige