Social Media Drawings – Donna Szoke

As an artist, ‘updating my status’ isn’t a way to socialize that I find compelling: as a tool, facebook seems to normalize the isolating effects of consumer technology. I thought about the primarily haptic processes of the social experience in my studio: drawing or sculpting a friend, looking at an image together, talking about it over some aromatic tea. I began grabbing images from friends, ones that I found compelling. These images circulate as a split second in the endless twitter of social media. I draw the images of friends that strike me, that declare a rich inner world amidst the nothingness of digital chatter. Then, I give the drawing to the original source, and insert a moment of gift culture into that of the commodity form, and reinforce the haptic nature of lived experience.

Bio
Donna Szoke is a Canadian media artist whose practice includes video, animation, writing, installation, and collaboration. Her work has been exhibited in Canada, US, France, Germany, and Turkey. In 2011, her work will exhibit in public art (City of Vancouver), interactive video installation (Plug In ICA, Winnipeg MB), outdoor site-specific video installation, and live theatre (St. Catharines ON). She has received numerous research awards and grants for her work, including a recent SSHRC and BC Arts Council Media Arts. She holds a BA, BFA and MFA and is currently a Visiting Artist / Assistant Professor at Brock University in the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts.