Scrolling is our ritual. We tap through the virtual windows of other lives. We touch our fingers along the surfaces of our screens as if in search of something: distraction, perhaps, or some awakening of our awareness, or some numbing of our feelings. We share hints of our own lives, hunting for hearts we can never touch with our hands. But the internet traffics in the temporary. Experts warn us our digital detritus will quickly and easily disappear. That we should print out the emails we wish to save. That we should frame the photos most precious to us. Even our devices are temporary, each object’s outmodedness planned into its construction.
But some posts deserve more than our quick scroll. Some posts are monuments to a moment. They leap from the confined windows of our devices. They make us laugh, make us wince, make us crack a wry smile in shared side-eye. They offer a quicksilver sense of truth we want to keep for ourselves. Some social media posts are, in short, art: sophisticated forms that offer us something true. That engage our social impulses while rousing the deeper capabilities of our hearts and minds to observe, to feel, to take note, to talk back. How do we engage and preserve such art? What do we do when clicking isn’t enough?
“Post Truth” goes beyond mere printing and framing. This exhibit experiments with creating, from the online temporary, objects solid, physical, and lasting. Each constructed post is a monument, a signpost for the permanent wit a sharp mind offers the impermanent Internet. Stroll by instead of scrolling by. Linger. And if you find yourself needing a heart as much as you do online, touch and take one for yourself. <3 <3 <3
Exhibition text by Laurel Fantauzzo
