From Selfie to Self-Expression

Surprisingly good exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery looking at the growth of the selfie and how that sits in the tradition of self-portraiture in art.

I was surprised as some of the press I had read leading up to this felt a bit cheesy including a selfie competition.  I’ve never bought into the great selfie craze so I was prepared to be annoyed by this show but I really enjoyed it!

I liked the fact it started with two rooms of self-portraits one looking at the old masters, including Rembrandt and Durer, and one of modern masters such as Freud and Spencer. These were shown on super large, mobile phone shaped, back lit screens with smaller phones next to them for you to show loves and likes like a Facebook photo.

There was then a room of famous or unusual selfies. It made you realise how they are finding their way into the zeitgeist! The Ellen DeGeneres Oscar selfie was there, a picture of Mr Bean taking his own photo with a Polaroid, the Benedict Cumberbatch photo bomb, Hilary Clinton waving to a crowd with them all with their backs turned to her taking selfies with her and the Cameron and Obama one at Nelson Mandela’s funeral. iI loved a wonderful picture of Simone de Beauvoir with Sartre in a photo shooting gallery at the fair, if you hit the bulls eye it took your picture!

The show also looked at how contemporary artist were using selfies such as Amelia Ulman’s pictures which were released on Instagram to create a false story and Nina Katchadourian’s pictures taken in aeroplane toilets with toilet paper to create a Flemish look.

Most fun were the interactive works. I found the large room where automated camera’s focus in on people and pick subjects to project onto the walls. I don’t need to see myself that big! I loved two works by Daniel Rozin, one captured your image in a set of lines in which I came our rather colourful, and another which captures images in black and white pompoms.

As for the aforementioned selfie competition? It actually through up some fascinating images. I liked Finian Croy’s image in a vintage bathroom with his image in two mirrors and Sarah Carpenter’s of her peeping through floral wallpaper.

Closed on 30 May.

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