.*` .* ;`*,`., `, ,`.*.*. *.*` .* ;`*,`., `, ,`.*.*. *.*` .* ;`*,`., `, ,`.*.*. * by Petra Cortright, as seen at Société gallery. Taken with Samsung Galaxy Alpha
In our “Me, Myself and Art” series, in collaboration with Samsung Galaxy Alpha, Sleek takes an immersive approach to the art world. Via the medium of writer and stylist Ella Plevin, and her shiny new Samsung Galaxy Alpha, we bring the art world to you in a uniquely personalised way, utilising performance, selfies and video to present new perspectives on the art scene. Check out #sleekalphaselfie to win a phone for yourself.
Flashback to last month when artist Petra Cortright opened her new solo show “PETWELT” at Berlin’s Société gallery. Cortright is master of the selfie. She’s been making her short, enigmatic video portraits since 2007; employing various software tools to morph her body, bug out her eyes, adorn herself in composited fireworks and pixel snowflakes or wash her hair in digital flames and ripples. She consistently uses her own image in these works, yet as she told Rhizome in 2011 the webcam here is “not a magnifying glass, it’s a veil”.
BRIDAL SHOWER as seen on the Samsung Galaxy Alpha, also on view at Société gallery
Mainbitch.mov Spring Scrap on view at Société. Taken with Samsung Galaxy Alpha
I caught up with Petra at the opening for an interview (due out in the next issue of Sleek) and asked her who she makes work for: “I’d like to think it’s 90% for me and 10% for ‘the internet’ “. In addition to her video works Petra has also made digital paintings, websites and ebooks; digital work that is increasingly travelling into the gallery space in the form of printed silks, canvases and projections like the works at Société.
#SleekAlphaSelfie taken at Société using the Samsung Galaxy Alpha
She talks about growing up in a kind of “sweet spot” of the development of digital culture, where experimenting online felt natural but “technology wasn’t so developed that [she] felt entitled to the endless amounts of resources that have become a birthright for kids growing up now”.
dot warp with door on view at Société, taken with the Samsung Galaxy Alpha
Her aesthetic is instantly recognisable and has gained her an international following that includes high profile admirers like fashion designer Stella McCartney (their first collaboration “dot warp with door” is also on view at Société). But despite the leaps forward in hardware and software, her increasing visibility as an artist and any resulting access to resources, Cortright sill limits herself to a simple tool set: webcam, laptop, self.
Feeling inspired yesterday, I played around with some of the drawing applications available on Android (Line Camera, Photo Merge, Adobe Photoshop Express etc) and the preset stickers in Samsung’s Photo Studio app. Most of the results are too embarrassing to publish. It was fun but, in the end, I think there’s a reason I’m not a net artist…
Text by Ella Plevin
PETWELT is at Société until 22 November 2014
To see more from our Me, Myself and Art series and to enter to win a Samsung Galaxy Alpha of your own, check out our #SleekAlphaSelfies competition
Check out previous entries here on our #SleekAlphaSelfie Tumblr
#sleekalphaselfie with Petra Cortright made using the Samsung Galaxy Alpha