In Amalia Ullmann's view, it is not a natural thing to be a woman, pictured here is her selfie series "Excellence and Perfection"
Amalia Ulman, a 28-year-old conceptual artist, was born in Argentina, grew up in Spain, then studied art in London and now lives and works in Los Angeles. She is a typical citizen of the world. On Instagram, she has 150,000 followers, like many Internet celebrities, she carefully runs her own account, shaping the roles of sweetheart baby, sexy goddess, girl next door, etc. She shares with netizens her life experiences such as going in and out of high-end restaurants, enjoying travel vacations, or taking drugs, breast augmentation, pregnancy, etc. Unlike other online selfies (and perhaps partially the same), these identities are fictional, all photos are her elaborate posing, and the content it presents. It's like a soap opera about the ups and downs of urban women's growth.
"Becoming an internet celebrity is just part of her artistic creation." At the Lianzhou Photography Annual Exhibition, which kicked off in December 2017, Emmalia Ullman was one of the artists invited to the show, and curator Zhang Bing believes that her work is very much in line with the keywords involved in this year's theme exhibition: selfies and social media. In Zhang Bing's view, Ullman's creation, on the one hand, is a careful design after analyzing and interpreting the communication methods and effects of social media, on the other hand, it presents many heavy social problems under its light appearance.
In 2014, Ullmann created the "Excellences & Perfections" series on his Instagram account, almost a performance art that lasted for four months. "This is a work of her very conceptual concept," Zhang Bing told the surging news (www.thepaper.cn), "which includes a variety of integrated methods such as social psychology and color psychology analysis, strict script setting, just right performance, popular selfies, beauty pictures and the use of social media platforms, the purpose of which is not to simply use social media platforms to exhibit and display a selfie and retouched picture, but to explore the boundaries between the real and the unreal." ”
In Zhang Bing's view, social media has changed the value recognition system, and it has turned photography into a fast-moving spiritual consumer product. Amalia Ullmann's generation grew up in the age of social networks, which naturally became part of her work itself, whether it was used as a tool and a means or as an object of discussion in her work itself.
Emmalia Ullman, "Excellence and Perfection" series, image from Instagram
In 2016, the "Excellence and Perfection" series was presented at london's Tate Group Exhibition, Performing for the Camera, which explores the culture of selfie from the 150 years since the invention of photography through 500 works. The series was also included in the group exhibition "Electronic Highway" at the Whitechapel Gallery in London. Ullmann is regarded as the first artist to create on social media and enter the mainstream institutional landscape.
In a way, Emmail Ullmann is following in the footsteps of previous artists, exploring the fluid qualities of female identity. Before her, Judy Dayt and Cindy Sherman also played and represented the social roles and psychological aspirations of women at different times through selfies and roles. "Judy Dayt focuses on the lives of middle-class housewives in the United States, and both the work and the characters are reflections of the artist's own life and psychology; Cindy Sherman plays a more diverse role, and the roles are always at a certain distance from her personally." Zhang Bing introduced, "In The work of Amalia Ullmann, she herself starred in one of her own fictional characters, rather than multiple roles. She made this fictional character more universal by setting different bridges in the script. ”
"I'm willing to go with the language of the web to tell stories," Ullmann explains, "rather than adapting old mediums and putting them on the web, their tone and rhythm are completely different." Perhaps this answer explains her popularity on the Internet. On the other hand, of course, it's undeniable: "I know that those pictures of half-naked girls get a lot of likes. ”
At the recent Lianzhou Photography Annual Exhibition, Amalie Ullmann was interviewed by the www.thepaper.cn.
The Paper: Can you talk about your "privilege" in the series of exhibits at the Lianzhou Photography Annual Exhibition? What role did Bob the pigeon play in it?
Ullman: At the end of 2015, I started launching the "Privilege" series, which was my second Instagram rendition, which lasted a year and came to an end shortly after the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In the previous "Excellence and Perfection" series, I created a completely fictional character, and in the "Privilege" series, I amplified the character's characteristics and added my own multiple identities, mostly set in the office of a company or in the night of downtown Los Angeles. Throughout the rendition, I used a variety of visual materials, New York-style cartoons, short videos, brand endorsements, fashion blockbusters, and images from office culture and the political climate of the time. The core of the performance, including a fictional pregnancy, introduces mysterious characters. Bob the Pigeon was my pet friend, and he always sneaked into the office at first to disturb my creations, and later, it became my creative consultant. This character always shifts between different definitions, such as real and false, hobbies and obsessions, supporting roles and protagonists, good tastes and bad tastes.
The pigeon "Bob" is a mysterious character introduced by Ullmann in the "Privilege" series
The Paper: Why did you think of playing the role of a pregnant woman?
Ullman: I was really thinking about getting pregnant. On the other hand, performances on social media are temporal, and pregnancy can set the beginning and end of a story. As the story progresses, one can see the prosthesis getting bigger and bigger, and I think it works well.
Ullmann posted "news" of his pregnancy on the Internet, with images from Instagram
The Paper: What is your role on Instagram? Can you describe her personality traits?
Ullman: I am myself and what others project of me: a working-class immigrant, a European, a Latin, privileged Caucasian woman, a neurotic feminist, a pregnant woman, a lazy artist, a capitalist, a Democrat, a Republican.
The Paper: There is a saying that gender is a kind of play. How to distinguish between the real you and the playing you?
Ullman: I'm partly regulated by biology, partly influenced by culture and education. Others argue that women change over time, are historical, or have different stereotypes shaped in different cultures.
I believe women understand the meaning of these performances faster than men. Like: I get it! It's so much fun! Where are the interesting stems? You finally realize that being a woman is not a natural thing, and you have to learn to be her. I think it's interesting to play with these images.
Amalia Ullman, "Privilege" series
The Paper: People often compare your creations with Cindy Sherman, what do you think of Cindy Sherman?
Ullman: People always ask me this because we're all taking pictures. Her work is great, she's a very talented photographer. But I see photography as a means to an end, not an end in itself. I'm more interested in storytellers like Spalding Gray, Yvonne Rainer, Fischli/Weiss. I like to create a small world, through photography, but also through sculpture, video, literature, music, smell... At least I tried to do it. I usually look for inspiration in movies and books. I love Wong Kar Wai and Olivier Assayas.
The Paper: Nowadays everyone posts photos on Instagram. Where do you think the boundaries between art and non-art lie?
Ullman: All I can say is my case. I would write a script beforehand, weave the whole story, and subvert the concept of spontaneous use of social media, so it is not the same as the usual simple posts.
The Paper: What do you think of cosmetic surgery, or when people retouch with ps before posting photos?
Ullman: I find it interesting that mobile phone cameras are becoming more and more developed, and at the same time, people have a greater need for a knife in the face. Especially now that people use webcasting, you can't groom yourself with Photoshop. In fact, in the entertainment industry, actors have always been like this, but in today's society, everyone can be an actor, so everyone faces such censorship norms.
In fact, the body is an important area of my research. One day I saw an interview with Zoe Saldana, who said, "Men are going to have a midlife crisis, buy a Porsche, date a 17-year-old girl." I can also buy myself a pair of perfect and become the sexiest football mommy you'll ever see. "She speaks positively and confidently, but I think there's a big problem with the metaphor. How can buying a car and breast augmentation be compared? Women want to be in better shape, so enduring pain becomes a matter of course?
The Paper: What do you think beauty means to women?
Ullman: I remember a friend saying: The more misogynistic this country is, the more beautiful their women are. If women become stronger without other options, the competitive pressure for beauty will become more intense. A person feels comfortable herself and others find her beautiful, and there is another gap between the two. My parents moved to Spain from Argentina when I was one year old. In Argentina, girls' 18th birthday gifts are often a breast augmentation for themselves, which is unheard of in Spain or France. So this is closely related to the local culture, to see if people respect women in addition to gender traits.