Jessica Eastburn:
SEND PICS Statement
SEND PICS Statement
Jessica Eastburn, Talk Therapy, 18 x 24, gouache, airbrush, spray paint
The term “send pics” is derived from earlier internet speak in which someone wanting physical evidence of something requests “pics” (pictures) of the event, act, or object in question. Of course, it is now de rigueur to photograph everything as proof of having experienced, completed, or participated in something. (After all, how else will anyone know you exist if you don’t constantly document proof of your existence online?) So the term is a bit dated at this stage in the game. “Send pics” can also have a more risqué implication, in which someone asks via message for photographs of another in various states of undress. This rather crass form of flirtation is now also standard in the internet age: “sexting”, “junk shots,” and the like, are how modern people in the industrialized world have ritualized the mating process. The term “send pics” perfectly encapsulates this idea of overly simple, immediate gratification—even the person doing the asking cannot be bothered to use the full word ‘pictures’ and instead needs to truncate the word to “pics” (which makes no sense considering that we already have the abbreviated word photo for photograph, but I digress).
The work in this exhibition represents our inability as a culture to think deeply, to hold a focused conversation about anything of actual substance, and points toward our eventual destruction at the hands of technology. We have lost the ability to have civil discourse that is based on reasoning and logic. Instead, we are driven by a need for immediate gratification and pleasure seeking. This has left us with the attention spans of toddlers, with an emotional range to match. There are many causes for this sorry state, but the most overarching force behind this collapse of civilized society is the ever-evolving digital technology which now dominates our lives. The access to the internet at all times--the internet which we use mainly for unimportant tasks such as: social media bragging, message board trolling, and “news” gathering which consists of nothing more than reposts of tweets by celebrities or lists of “14 things to never buy full price” (yes, I could have just used the term “listicle” to describe that last one but I do not believe that to be an actual word—we can’t make a portmanteau out of everything!), or other clickbait articles meant to generate advertising revenue--has left us all emotionally, morally, and intellectually bankrupt.
The random aggregation of imagery in the paintings and larger drawings is meant to evoke the same kind of information overload that one feels when interacting with the world through digital technology. The imagery is of no consequence to these works, I could have chosen to depict anything in them and the result would be the same. There is no distinct narrative intended for the works, however, there is an underlying sinister threaded throughout. The idea that this monster (technology) has broken from its shackles and is now in control is present in the way that incongruous elements comingle and compete for our attention, in the way disturbing imagery can sneak its way next to the most benign thing, and in the way it is impossible to make heads or tails of the mass of information in order to discern if anything in these works is relevant, important, or worthwhile to look at. We can only sit back and watch (and take pics to post to social media to show that we were there) as the society that we have inherited collapses before us. Maybe when the powers that be exploit us too much we will finally look up from our screens and take notice that our land, our democracy and our values have all been trashed before our very eyes?…well maybe not before our very eyes--because we were too busy looking at our devices.
This idea leads to the other grouping of works in the exhibition: the sketchbook pages from the series “I’m on the Phone”. As I have become increasingly more anxious about the state of the world and the people left to run it, I have started to look around me to discover that most people do not appear to share my wild-eyed terror, but instead seem to be too focused on their phones to notice what is going on around them. It is a phenomenon I have observed most acutely while commuting to and from work on public transit. “Well, maybe those people are frantically trying to find information on the internet about becoming a more engaged citizen and just happen to be doing so on their phones while they commute because that is the only free time they have?” I have thought of this possibility too, but then I began looking at people’s phone screens to see what they were up to only to find most people engaging in: 1) online shopping, 2) playing Candy Crush, and 3) texting. It turns out that people are so distracted when interacting with their phones that, yes, you can just blatantly look at their screen and they won’t notice. This realization made me take this premise one step further and photograph people who were engrossed in their phones (ironically I needed to use my own mobile phone to do so) and then draw the resulting portraits as a way to memorialize this stage in our evolution: man hunched over a small rectangle, squinting at a blue light, thumbs furiously tapping away.
I have nothing against technology; I think it can be really wonderful—in fact, I use a mobile phone everyday. But the way we are gorging ourselves on digital technology and media is unhealthy. (Have you ever noticed how social media companies use the term “feed” to describe the endless posts they force at you? As if they know that people, Americans especially, are predisposed to overeating junk.) We need to find balance so that we can be engaged in what is going on in our immediate vicinity as well as globally. The two smaller drawings, You Howl at Me, I Howl at Youand Don’t Feed Your Horse Too Much Candy, are parables for what will happen too us if we do not change course. While this may all sound very gloom and doom, I am actually optimistic that the majority of people will make the change and attempt to find that balance in their lives wherein technology serves us instead of us serving the technology companies. So, with that in mind, if you like any piece in this show, instead of taking a photo and posting it to social media, maybe call up a friend and invite them to meet you at the gallery to show it to them in person (you know…irl).
The work in this exhibition represents our inability as a culture to think deeply, to hold a focused conversation about anything of actual substance, and points toward our eventual destruction at the hands of technology. We have lost the ability to have civil discourse that is based on reasoning and logic. Instead, we are driven by a need for immediate gratification and pleasure seeking. This has left us with the attention spans of toddlers, with an emotional range to match. There are many causes for this sorry state, but the most overarching force behind this collapse of civilized society is the ever-evolving digital technology which now dominates our lives. The access to the internet at all times--the internet which we use mainly for unimportant tasks such as: social media bragging, message board trolling, and “news” gathering which consists of nothing more than reposts of tweets by celebrities or lists of “14 things to never buy full price” (yes, I could have just used the term “listicle” to describe that last one but I do not believe that to be an actual word—we can’t make a portmanteau out of everything!), or other clickbait articles meant to generate advertising revenue--has left us all emotionally, morally, and intellectually bankrupt.
The random aggregation of imagery in the paintings and larger drawings is meant to evoke the same kind of information overload that one feels when interacting with the world through digital technology. The imagery is of no consequence to these works, I could have chosen to depict anything in them and the result would be the same. There is no distinct narrative intended for the works, however, there is an underlying sinister threaded throughout. The idea that this monster (technology) has broken from its shackles and is now in control is present in the way that incongruous elements comingle and compete for our attention, in the way disturbing imagery can sneak its way next to the most benign thing, and in the way it is impossible to make heads or tails of the mass of information in order to discern if anything in these works is relevant, important, or worthwhile to look at. We can only sit back and watch (and take pics to post to social media to show that we were there) as the society that we have inherited collapses before us. Maybe when the powers that be exploit us too much we will finally look up from our screens and take notice that our land, our democracy and our values have all been trashed before our very eyes?…well maybe not before our very eyes--because we were too busy looking at our devices.
This idea leads to the other grouping of works in the exhibition: the sketchbook pages from the series “I’m on the Phone”. As I have become increasingly more anxious about the state of the world and the people left to run it, I have started to look around me to discover that most people do not appear to share my wild-eyed terror, but instead seem to be too focused on their phones to notice what is going on around them. It is a phenomenon I have observed most acutely while commuting to and from work on public transit. “Well, maybe those people are frantically trying to find information on the internet about becoming a more engaged citizen and just happen to be doing so on their phones while they commute because that is the only free time they have?” I have thought of this possibility too, but then I began looking at people’s phone screens to see what they were up to only to find most people engaging in: 1) online shopping, 2) playing Candy Crush, and 3) texting. It turns out that people are so distracted when interacting with their phones that, yes, you can just blatantly look at their screen and they won’t notice. This realization made me take this premise one step further and photograph people who were engrossed in their phones (ironically I needed to use my own mobile phone to do so) and then draw the resulting portraits as a way to memorialize this stage in our evolution: man hunched over a small rectangle, squinting at a blue light, thumbs furiously tapping away.
I have nothing against technology; I think it can be really wonderful—in fact, I use a mobile phone everyday. But the way we are gorging ourselves on digital technology and media is unhealthy. (Have you ever noticed how social media companies use the term “feed” to describe the endless posts they force at you? As if they know that people, Americans especially, are predisposed to overeating junk.) We need to find balance so that we can be engaged in what is going on in our immediate vicinity as well as globally. The two smaller drawings, You Howl at Me, I Howl at Youand Don’t Feed Your Horse Too Much Candy, are parables for what will happen too us if we do not change course. While this may all sound very gloom and doom, I am actually optimistic that the majority of people will make the change and attempt to find that balance in their lives wherein technology serves us instead of us serving the technology companies. So, with that in mind, if you like any piece in this show, instead of taking a photo and posting it to social media, maybe call up a friend and invite them to meet you at the gallery to show it to them in person (you know…irl).
