Chiara Minchio with David Jourdan, Lisa Holzer, Kitty Kraus, Stefan Schuster
Julius Caesar, Chicago
Chiara Minchio, Profiles (Stripe Style), 2010, oil and spray-paint on canvas, 115 x 100 cm
Chiara Minchio, Profiles (Stripe Style), 2010, oil and spray-paint on canvas, 155 x 190 cm
David Jourdan, Untitled(ABBDEEEEIIILNNNRTTTUW), 2010
Kitty Kraus, Untitled, 2010
Stefan Schuster, Untitled, 2010
Chiara Minchio, Profiles (Stripe Style), 2010
Lisa Holzer, Besoffene B-Löcher (Summer Dreamin‘), 2009
… Sorry, I Didn’t Have Time to Google You
In a globalized social environment the need for standardized and easy accessable data on individuals became an important aspect. With the help of the internet this information can nowadays easily be gathered: through various web sites and web services information can be found in the form of profiles offering standardized data like address, age, occupation, hobbies, etc.
The word profile belongs to a kind of „newspeak“ – a term introduced by George Orwell in his novel 1984 describing „the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year“. In Orwell’s novel it was the eye of Big Brother which served as the instrument of observation. In today’s „profiles“ – in the sense of literally drawing a profile – another sense organ became important: the nose enabling an interactive and mutual checking out: „if you want others to be able to find you, create your own profile “ or „looking to hire just the right candidate? Look no further. We make the search easy. We don’t work like head hunters. We’re professional search agents. There’s no obligation. No expense. No pressure. No attitude.“ etc. The german expression „mit der Nase auf etwas stoßen“, meaning to sniff something out. Surfing, navigating through the procession of images, through the „most flagged entries“, through blogs, extended links, through picture hoardings. Sensing excitement and confusion in equal measure, a common experience among strangers. An invitation to reflect on the increasingly fragmented nature of experience and on the modification of language.