{"id":59706,"date":"2017-11-30T15:58:24","date_gmt":"2017-11-30T14:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?p=59706"},"modified":"2017-11-30T15:58:24","modified_gmt":"2017-11-30T14:58:24","slug":"memes-gothshakira","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/memes-gothshakira\/","title":{"rendered":"The Montreal-Based Creative On Making Memes that Change the World: An Interview With Gothshakira"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" Photo credit Rebecca Storm for SSENSE<\/p>\n

As part of \u201cInfluence Now\u201d, a series exploring the role of the \u201cinfluencer\u201d on contemporary culture, we interviewed five people whose work has shaped and influenced their fields in various ways. \u201cInfluence Now\u201d will appear in SLEEK 57;\u00a0subscribe to Sleek here.<\/a><\/span><\/em>
\nExplore the rest of the \u201cInfluence Now\u201d series<\/i>:\u00a0Kimberly Drew<\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0<\/a>Jerry Saltz<\/a><\/span>\u00a0\/\u00a0<\/span><\/a>Emily Segal \/\u00a0<\/a>Gabriel Held<\/a><\/span>
\nWhen SLEEK first contacts Gothshakira, it\u2019s been two months since she\u2019s published an Instagram meme. It\u2019s September, and in lieu of the wry, confessional- style content that her 59,600 followers have grown to love, the Montreal-based creative (whose real name is Dre) has instead posted three iPhone screenshots of content ideas, drugstore shopping lists and a photo of a late victim of transphobic violence. \u201cSometime after I went viral, it wasn\u2019t fun anymore,\u201d she explains some time later. \u201cBut last week I made the first meme I\u2019ve made in months, which is about 69 eons in internet time.\u201d
\nThe silence-breaking viral reads \u201cactually it\u2019s my boyfriend and i only fuck to beach house not me and my boyfriend only fuck to beach house\u201d superimposed over a video still of Britney Spears. Showcasing her ability to intertwine pop cultural relevance with publicised emotional vulnerability, the post proves that despite her brief absence from the fastpaced world of feminist meme-making, she still has it. \u201cAs much as I\u2019d like to tell myself the process [of creating shareable posts] is organic, nothing is truly authentic or honest,\u201d she says, \u201c[Mine] is as organic as a late-capitalist simulation allows it to be. God, I sound like such an asshole.\u201d
\n\"\"
\nIn February, Dre participated in the LA exhibition \u201cby any memes necessary\u201d, which centred on internet culture as a form of catharsis. Not long after, she was contacted by Gucci and contributed to the viral campaign #TFWGucci. Good or bad, 2016 has seen everyone from Ikea to Alexander Wang capitalising on memes to garner attention. And while Dre is quick to admit the corniness of her art, she believes it has the ability to spark wider discussion on issues such as cultural appropriation. \u201cBig brands co-opting memes is indicative of a certain period and place in space-time that I think we will look back on, even if only to cringe.
\nThat being said, important discussions have been happening regarding ownership over memes, and the extent to which their re-imagination by big brands constitutes cultural appropriation of humour originally conceived by black communities.\u201d Admitting that it\u2019s part of the reason for her absence from Instagram, she says, \u201cOne of the most significant things I\u2019ve learned through being Goth Shakira is that sometimes listening is more important than creating. The ethics of content generation in an online culture of mimicry and reproduction is something that I hope we prioritise as time goes by.\u201d
\n\"\"
\nToday, Dre may confidently refuse to follow trends, but she doesn\u2019t deny that there are demands to do so. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of pressure for Instagram content creators to keep up some sort of cohesive aesthetic and brand, even within a femme confessional meme community that is supposedly based on honesty, fragility, messiness and vulnerability. I make stuff how and when I want. But again, now knowing that claiming authenticity is in and of itself inauthentic, I can\u2019t pretend that I\u2019m above trying to keep up appearances online.\u201d
\nThough she\u2019s back to her old ways of content production, Dre confesses she couldn\u2019t be happier with how her IRL-life has progressed, too. When not on the internet, she spends her time between working at a tech company and singing in a band. So what\u2019s her secret to success? \u201cLive, laugh, love, bonch. What else is there?\u201d Amen.
\n\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We talk to the queen of memes, Montreal creative, Goth Shakira, about her process and influence on society<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59726,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11856,139],"tags":[9785,3068,5440,8319],"class_list":["post-59706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sleek-art","category-art","tag-gothshakira","tag-instagram","tag-meme","tag-memes"],"acf":{"main_category":null,"legacy":"1","exclude_from_ads":null,"hero_title":null,"subtitle":null,"hero":null,"teasers":null,"facebook_image":null,"related_articles":null,"next_article":null,"sleek_card_focus":null,"content":null},"yoast_head":"\nGothshakira on making memes that change the world<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We interview Montreal-based creative, Goth Shakira AKA the queen of memes about her process and influence she has on society.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/memes-gothshakira\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gothshakira on making memes that change the world\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We interview Montreal-based creative, Goth Shakira AKA the queen of memes about her process and influence she has on society.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/memes-gothshakira\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sleek Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sleekmag\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-11-30T14:58:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sleekmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sleekmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Verfasst von\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"sleek\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Gesch\u00e4tzte Lesezeit\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3\u00a0Minuten\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/\",\"name\":\"Sleek Magazine\",\"description\":\"Sleek is Germany\u2019s leading independent media house\/brand for creativity and innovation located in Berlin the creative capital of the world. 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