You All Fell For My Act – Open Now
Opening Night
Technically Intimate
You All Fell For My Act is now up at Media and Moving Art in Rotterdam. There was a last minute addition to the show. Ai Weiwei was added to the show just before it went up. The reception has been good. I have four pieces in the show. They are Megan, Heidi and John, Lexi, and Sady. They are the full size versions and were mounted for the show.
Copyright Kim Nuijen
The artists included in the show are Ai Weiwei (CN, 1957), Kalup Linzy (US, 1977), Kim Nuijen (NL, 1984), Jamie Warren (US, 1980), Renée van Trier (NL, 1983), Evan Baden (US, 1985), Mark Callahan (US, 1971).The show will be up until October 16, 2011.
You All Fell For My Act is an international group exhibition about the way in which we relate ourselves to idealized images of a prevailing norm. The participating artists mainly use lens based media to show emerging tendencies of how we present ourselves on a global stage. This approach is informed by the wealth of different platforms to stage yourself as an individual: TV talent shows, social media, YouTube, but also city photography and fashion blogs. Whilst the individual performs, the implication is that the world is watching.
Sady, 2009
The artists in this exhibition play, in different ways, with these emerging phenomena. Evan Baden shows young girls who make photos of themselves in their bedrooms whilst posing in front of a webcam. The photographic work of Jamie Warren is more theatrical; she dresses in a carnival-esque way contrasting her looks with her surroundings. In Kalup Lenzy’s videos he plays with his own identity by adopting different roles in a soap opera, which he then acts on camera.
Copyright Jamie Warren
As such, the artists in this exhibition play with the way a prevailing ideal or standard affects the behavior of people. By transgressing the boundaries between real and fake, and between public and private we see the variability and changeability of identity.
The Exhibition You All Fell For My Act has been produced and curated by the second intake of participants of MAMA’s Rookies MA. In 2009 the first intake of the Rookies MA presented their exhibition For Security Reasons. Through the Rookies MA course (the successor of Mr. Miyagi Curating Tomorrow course) aspiring young curators are given the opportunity to realize and create an exhibition from start to finish.
Copyright Mark Callahan
Under the guidance of MAMA’s staff and a variety of local and international guest lecturers the Rookies MA course teaches many important aspects of curatorship including: fundraising, liaising with artists, communication, exhibition design, set-up and take down of exhibition, up to and including a final evaluation.
About Media and Moving Art:
MAMA (1997) is a project by the Public Art Squad Foundation and is situated in Rotterdam. MAMA is a platform for visual culture on the cutting edge of visual arts and popular culture and serves as a home base for the youngest generation of producers of images, artists, and an audience aged between 16 and 26. MAMA produces exhibitions, books and magazines, organizes performances and events, presents and represents young artists at home and abroad, and is part of an international network of like-minded organizations.