Mariah Carey’s head dominates Carrie Schneider’s solo show at Chart Gallery in Tribeca; smiling and nodding, it is featured in a large 16mm color film projection, a still image and two impressively huge photos printed on paper rolls that total 400 feet in length. Sampled from an interview in which Carey says in response to a question about Jennifer Lopez, ‘I don’t know her,’ Schneider’s work explores how a few seconds of footage can become a meme with an unending digital lifespan and how an evasion on Carey’s part resulted in a cascade of attention. Schneider’s super-abundance of abstract imagery created via multiple exposures in a specially built camera generates its own kind of optical noise, a visual art parallel to celebrity culture.
Tag: meme
Ahn Tae Won in Universes 5 at The Hole NYC
Korean artist Ahn Tae Won wanted to take something everyday and make it surreal; he happened upon a cat meme and was inspired to create this quirky in-the-round sculpture titled ‘Hiro is Everywhere,’ a standout in The Hole’s summer group show in Tribeca curated by Sasa Bogojev. Appearing to be digital yet obviously a 3-D manifestation, this intriguingly odd sculpture speaks to the unknowability of cats. (On view through Aug 5th).
Avery Singer at Hauser & Wirth Gallery
Beneath an overlay of doodles depicting the Wojak meme in various iterations including Martin Luther, an executioner and a victim of the guillotine, the hulking face of Maximilien Robespierre exudes menace in Avery Singer’s painting at Hauser & Wirth Gallery. Reintroduced to the bloodthirsty leader of the French revolution’s ‘Reign of Terror’ via the game Assassin’s Creed, Singer blends adopts this oversized historical personage to consider modern-day digital expressions of violence. Titled ‘Edgelord,’ the piece draws parallels between the destruction wrought on-line today and by extreme characters of the past. (On view through Oct 30th).