Installation view courtesy of Gillmeier Rech Photo by Andrea Rossetti (2)
Many assume the first emoticon was typed in the last decades from an offhanded gesture by a cyber-teen. However Scott E. Fahlman, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University, created it in 1982. At that moment the masses were not flicking their thumbs to release emotive discourse but the few scientists and academic computer experts he was in contact with via early online bulletin boards needed a way of expressing a “pure” joke and the emoticon was born 🙂
Just one year earlier, 1981 the Memphis Design Group started to design postmodern furniture, patterns, ceramics and objects that were characterised by their colourful ephemeral design similar to an exotic sci-fi baroque. The style was misunderstood and loved by many, and most notably coined “as a shotgun wedding between Bauhaus and Fisher-Price.” Seemingly these two creative outputs would not cross paths but artist Marco Bruzzone started to notice emojis when looking at Ettore Sottsass’ Bacterio design; in fact he saw thousands of emoji faces within the black and white random wiggled design – one of the most famous outputs of the Memphis collective, which Sottsass founded.
Speculative Careless, 2016ink, paper, glass, frame52 x 42 cm Courtesy of Gillmeier Rech Photo by Andrea Rossetti
In his latest show at GILLMEIER RECH, “Mosse & Mossette (Study for a Set of Emojis after E.Sottsass’ Bacterio)”, Bruzzone explores the relationship between household design and his own emoji discourse. Four framed emojis hang on the gallery’s wall; they sit behind household patterned glass in hues of pinks and oranges very 1980s Plattenbau chic. Distorted by the glass and blocked in by the frames they become distorted, sad creatures not meant only for one use they seem to want to be used and freed. The second room hits you with a peculiar interest and recoil action, just as many hate the emoji, deeming it the cheap substitute for language, the second room is plastered with faux granite effect to give a pale sunset pink hue mimicking the austere of the real deal. Bruzzone is known for his satirical gestures so along one wall camouflaged by the flecked granite is two toilet lids, lifting one you see hanging on the far wall his most prized emoji: “Every Time I Told You Everything Will Be Fine” set into a frame lined with colour changing LEDs. But this is not a sacred piece only for the eyes of a few, Bruzzone then invites the viewer to slip through the lower mounted toilet seat and into the room were you are alone with the glowing, simple and familiar face.
Instead of a press statement Bruzzone chose to quote part of “The Distant People” (1983) by Ettore Sottsass. “As I see it, at this point the avant-garde is made up of those who are carrying on a cultural strike, who create no culture or at most do what they can to uproot culture from the soil that the establishment fertilizes so well”
Bruzzone’s emoji installation also incorporates toilet seats and window shutters in what looks like a bizarre home of the future. Could his beautiful handcrafted emoji study be hinting at the wider picture of the new digital smart home? Built by big household giants like Amazon and Google, in the future we and home wares will all be utilised, digitalised and universally aestheticised just like the former Soviet East German dream that created the Plattenbau and adorned them with faux granite effect. Yet the loved smiley looks trapped behind a frame, hinting that in fact we live in between two worlds and that cross contamination will only leave us with a warped version of home and emotive ideology.