The Theatre of the Selfie: Fictive Practices of the Instagram Artist

Abstract

In a world where presentation of the self (Goffman) performed through ‘selfies’ have become everyday expressions, portrayal of the Self is being redefined by contemporary feminist artists. Building upon the legacy of artists such as Hannah Wilke, Lyn Hershman Leeson and Cindy Sherman a new generation of feminist artists through technology and particularly social media continue to explore gendered representations of the body by using their own bodies in their creative process. Using concepts of identity work, dramaturgy and impression management this paper considers the ways in which artists are using self-portraiture/selfies as art to exemplify the ways in which social media sites can be perceived as spaces to explore and document the construction of an ongoing series of narratives about the self. Taking an ethnography and visual studies approach this investigation considers the ways in which fictive personas constructed and performed by artists Leah Schrager as Ona Artist and Amalia Ulman’s Excellences & Perfections series respectively are brought to life. Both artists demonstrate how Instagram as a platform provides a stage for identity work that offers an opportunity to explore visual self-branding; the potential of narrative construction of identity via selfies and the effect of social media on identity construction. By exploring the art selfie phenomenon as well as observing the extent of selfie taking in contemporary culture this analysis identifies specifically how digifem artists are both claiming control over their own bodies and questioning issues of gender, technology and identity through a fictive lens.