Crude Obsessions

                                                                                                   

                                                                                                  (Internet Memes) 

 

 

I first approached the Memes as a product of our digital consumerism and growing internet culture. These computer-generated visuals, like genes, replicate, spread and carry their coded cultural content. They are in constant evolution, reacting, and mutating with each new environment, often in unpredictable ways. 

 

But this phenomenal visual mode of expression fueled with culture and humor, mostly the product of my generation, is still often ignored or undervalued, in part because of its shift between the farcical and the intelligent. I felt compelled to give this language some exposure. 

 

Semiology and the understanding that language is a human invention subject to social adaptation, can help us decipher the Memes grammar, vocabulary, sounds... but the final interpretation is often shifted, subordinated to pragmatics.

 

In the series “Crude Obsessions”, I am exploring the esoteric nature of the Memes, which makes their understanding a complex and sometimes futile chase. This installation reflects the unidentified identity behavior of their young audience, the sheer lack of substance, and the absurdity, being an important part of the appeal. 

 

Memes culture will only continue to develop and affect the way we communicate with one another. 

 

A humorous mindset can help us understand why this online language has been adopted so avidly and some Memes categories should be part of the iconology of contemporary humor. But mockery being the main Memes format, these visuals can be crude and controversial. 

 

They will soon call into question the balance between free speech and disruptive social behavior.

 

My decision to display internet-aware art away from their native computer screen is a tentative to modify our take on these mediated images.