‘Inside-out’
This is an early research project which drew on social theory exploring ideas of public intimacy. It was an attempt to circumvent use of the commodity-sign; to dissolve the social mask, and to more authentically reveal the self. The work draws on the personal, the private; that which is kept under the surface – seeking to display this both openly and publicly.
The project employed autoethnographic methods, and resulted in a short dissertation, as well as an exhibition.
From the exegesis:
Postmodern living presents us with a particular experience of the world – an experience that is diverse but fragmented; that presents a vast range of possibility, but at the same time a sense of uncertainty; that looks appealing on the surface, but beneath which lacks depth and meaning. This contemporary experience has been criticised as narcissistic, alienating, and ultimately conducive to a societal neurosis.
We work to find meaning in our lives. Questions of individual identity lie at the heart of human experience. We work to create ourselves – our identities – through a process of signification and presentation – that is, through an acquisition and performance of our gesture, speech, style. More often nowadays we consume those signs that are constantly presented to us, and ultimately sold to us en mass. Resultingly the language that we speak – how we present the self – becomes a mere iteration of the commodity-sign.