Molly Soda for Photography on a Postcard
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Molly Soda
Amalia Soto “Molly Soda” is the artist of now. A Brooklyn-based artist and internet celebrity, Soda works across a variety of digital platforms, producing videos, GIFs, zines, and web-based performance art, which are presented both online and in gallery installations in a variety of forms. Molly Soda's work explores the technological mediation of self-concept, contemporary feminism, cyberfeminism, mass media and popular social media culture. Molly Soda is the co-editor (with Arvida Byström) of the 2017 book, Pics or It Didn't Happen: Images Banned From Instagram.
She is the original tumblr girl, who shape shifts whilst readjusting and redefining new ways of using digital media for self expression. She was first recognised for playing every character in her YouTube series Tween Dreams, for which you can watch the trailer here. Since then she has demonstrated constant exploration into the uses and conventions of online content, with a good sense of humour too. Her series have been named titles such as Inbox Full, Should I Send This?, Virtual Spellbook, From My Bedroom to Yours- All of which grapple in some way, with the concept of subjective identity within an open, global space.
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This Photo Postcard is taken from her series Comfort Zone in which Soda presents herself in the private space of her bedroom in intimate and honest portraits of a millennial in her room. On the project she says that “We often view our private spaces as safe spaces, however in reality were not really that safe from anything. The Internet and our mobile phones are now like archives that store all our weight and personal emotions. Our feelings are now more visibly chained to us”. Her work transcends the feminist debate of private vs. public space by making the private public and the public private. Her work is evidence and exploration of how the internet can be used for groundbreaking feminist change. Molly encourages girls to take selfies, play with your webcam that most of us have access to, take naked selfies and send or publicise them as you please. In a world where images surround us, and every waking hour we are subject to hundreds of photos of other women, we can start to lose a sense of self, by constantly relating what we are to what other people are. By regularly constructing images of yourself, you are exploring ways in which you wish to see yourself, and taking control over how others perceive you, and the possibilities are endless. If you identify as woman, her work might provide some place of solace or encouragement, and at the very least introspection. |
Molly Soda Comfort Zone |
Self documentation and constantly playing with digital conventions- she also does 'Get Ready With Me' videos and makeup tutorials as well as videos such as 'At Home Earwax Removal'. She presents us with self conscious honesty that is refreshing and pushes the boundaries of 'social media etiquette'- it's an incredible social tool that has been co-opted into mediocrity and ego trips. To young artists, Molly gives this advice:
"I have a lot of advice for young people. I would say a big piece of advice is getting over the social hierarchy. No one is cooler or better than you, if you think that it will be harder for you to produce work or approach people. I have to constantly get out of that mind set. People on social media today are made out to be these amazing shiny people. Even those who are praised for being authentic or real online are still often placed on a pedestal. At the same time I also think that the Internet has made these people more accessible to us, it kind of puts us all on the same level. If you want to work with someone, it doesn’t hurt to approach them. It might not always work and it often doesn’t but it’s worth a try. When people email me, I read everything that I get and I respond accordingly. I’m always reading my emails and I’m constantly on my phone. However I won’t always know about certain things, not everyone has the time to do that much research, so if you want to work with someone, make yourself known and if they don’t respond to you then fuck it! At least you tried. That’s something that I always had to get over when I first started out.".
(Molly Soda Spindle Mag Interview)
Molly's work exists mainly online so prints of this kind are totally unique. Don't miss your chance to purchase a postcard by the fantastic Molly Soda, you can buy your ticket here now. Today we have a brilliant offer, all those on our mailing list, check your emails now...
