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FOAF (A friend of a friend)

2021 Competition entry

Johandi Du Plessis

Details:
Signed
Mixed-media installation
139 mm x 125 mm x 56 mm


Description:

FOAF – a friend of a friend – is a GIF-based artwork in response to the notion of something going ‘viral’; how it may mutate and seem to gain a life of its own.

‘Viral’ is usually used when referring to online content or behaviour, but during the Covid-19 pandemic, the term ‘viral’ gained new, frightening and dangerous connotations. The spread of (mis)information relating to the pandemic, which went ‘viral’ on the internet, too became frightening and dangerous. The way in which information spreads rapidly online reminded me of the way in which information is shared through a ‘friend of a friend’. The idea of a friend of a friend (of a friend of a friend etc.,) has the potential to become a network through which valuable and meaningful relationship is shared, and thus communities built, online and offline. During lockdowns and times of social distancing, online platforms, therefore, may foster human connectivity and relationships. However, it is also through a friend of a friend in which fake news goes ‘viral’ that may consequently be detrimental for real life. 

The animation takes the form of a GIF (Graphics Interchange Format), a simple bitmap animation of low resolution and, very short in duration, typically ranging between six and fifteen seconds - looping, and that ‘lives online’. These characteristics of a GIF means that it is of a very small file size, and therefore makes it viral material – easy to share. In FOAF, however, the meticulous digital drawing and painting between frames coupled with its conceptual underpinning attempt to disrupt typical viral imagery. 

The artist created the animation during lockdown level five in 2020, that formed part of an online art experiment by the Free State Art Collective in response to the lockdown and the pandemic. Up until now, the animation has thus only been viewed online on the internet and popular social media platforms. She has since appropriated the animation to form part of a mixed-media installation, involving technological devices such as a cell phone screen and charger, which plays on the tension between online and offline, materiality and virtuality and (dis)connectivity. If selected, it will be the first time the work is seen in its new form. The appropriation and transformation of the artwork is suggestive of the notion of an image, an artwork as viral, living and continuously open to more appropriations, acquiring new meanings and undergoing changes.