My phone has become my mirror
I use it to re-apply my lipstick, check my teeth
I use snapchat instead of the camera
It loads faster ‘n straight up makes me feel better about myself
The snapchat camera is more forgiving and easily manipulated
I like the fails – precious glitch moments where the fabrication is revealed
Suspension of disbelief self-destructs
Selfies as self-affirmations n self-explorations
Selfies as secret identities n self-actualisation
My phone autocorrects ‘selfies’ to ‘deities’
Fake it till you make it. Document the times you’re #feelingmylook.
Immortalise your #ootd
Channel your inner #glamazon
This isn’t narcissism, this is self-preservation
Still, filter fails show the facets of reality breaking through
The in-dominatable nature of imperfection
The utter impossibility of masking the real
Fail filters show up like phantom photography
The layering up of selves #grotesquepastiche
Unexpected honesty
Glum reality
Outing the self as just another mask that can be applied, layered
There is no truth, every facet is a fiction
Still feeling that flower crown filter tho
Photos by Jordana Bragg
One of five “snapchat fails” small (iPhone screen) scale photographic series
The Gaze is Not Something You Have or Use (It is a relationship entered into) was an exhibition of work and publication of national and international wāhine artists and writers. Each artist created work that was embodied, marked by their experiences and offered ways of expressing empathy through self care, repetition, unlearning / learning and humour
Contributors and collaborators:
Audrey Baldwin (Ōtautahi)
Katherine Botten (Narrm)
Sophie Cassar (Narrm)
Quishile Charan (Tāmaki Makaurau)
Klein (London)
Ayesha Tan-Jones (London)
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