Jan 5th 2018

Krista Wortendyke: #Mass_Observation

@ Filter Photo

1821 W Hubbard St, Ste 207, Chicago, IL 60622

Opening Friday, January 5th, from 6PM - 9PM

On view through Saturday, March 3rd

Filter Photo presents #Mass_Observation, a photographic installation by Krista Wortendyke. #Mass_Observation is about the developing space of social media and how we use it not only as a way of collecting our own experiences, but as a way of connecting and consuming the experiences of others.

Untrained observers continuously record world events, with the results posted to social media, such as Twitter and Instagram. With the rise of distrust in the major media outlets, we have turned to the non-professional, the Twittersphere, iPhone videos, and Instagram feeds for authentic and truthful windows to reality.

Wortendyke’s installation questions the aestheticization and mediation of violence in our culture by using images of racial riots, cropping them into Instagram-worthy squares, and combining them in a single space. The resulting installation thus mimics society’s comfort with Instagram while simultaneously calling into question the casualness with which we document and beautify events like riots.

Given the current state of racial politics and clashes in the United States, questioning and attempting to understand the role of mass media and the impact of social media in these conversations is essential. #Mass_Observation seeks to push audiences to consider their own consumption of mass and social media and the way each medium impacts the virtual spaces viewers curate for themselves.

Krista Wortendyke (b. 1979, Nyack, New York) is a Chicago-based conceptual artist. She received her MFA in Photography from Columbia College in 2007. Her ongoing work examines violence through the lens of photography. Her images are a result of a constant grappling with the mediation of war and brutality both locally and globally. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Schneider Gallery and Weinberg/Newton Gallery in Chicago, The Griffin Museum in Winchester, MA, and many other venues across the United States. Her work is also in the permanent collections of both the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago.

Exhibition Dates: January 5 – February 3, 2018
Opening Reception: January 5 | 6pm – 9pm
Location: Filter Space 1821 W. Hubbard St., Ste. 207
Gallery Hours: Monday – Saturday 11am – 5pm

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