No Wrong Answers
2019

Artist book (It me), risograph prints, playful printed surveys, black and white Ballograf pens with holders, light table, plastic wine glasses, oversize stuffed animal pillows, video on iPad, headphones

Studio 17 (Stavanger)

When we go online, what are we looking for? For many of us in the developed world, it's the dangling carrot of ourselves, of course.

And we do this through quizzes, surveys, memes, horoscopes, filters, apps, and even online shopping. What kind of medieval cat do we feel like today? What is our moon sign and is it compatible with our crush? What kind of pizza best suits our personality? What should we do with our lives?

This exhibition brings together works old and new that have deep roots in Internet culture. On the lower level: an installation of a brand new artist book entitled It me is juxtaposed with a video entitled usernames from 2009 screened on an original iPad. The former meditates upon the evolution and use of the emoji in the context of our hyper-politicised society and the endless scroll, while the latter collects a group of early Internet adopters reciting their back catalogs of screen names.

  

To greet visitors on the upper level, there is a series of prints composed of digital trash and a pair of surveys for which there are no wrong answers.

It me is an artist book by Jessica Williams. This full color book, bound with a vinyl cover, is printed to be the exact size and shape of an iPhone. A decade worth of screen shots, this book takes a deep dive into internet culture and identity politics through the examination of emojis, click-bait titles, memes, and selfies. What emerges is a work which represents the fleeting oversimplification of information and identity in the current era. The implications of which are a lack of nuance and loss of cultural specificity. The experience of moving through the pages of this artist book mirror the experience of swiping through social media or a dating app as advertisements creep uping up and down the pages. — Printed Matter (New York City)