I Have Everything I Need - Gretchen's Affirmation Ads
(un)fair (un)expected art fair
March 3 - 5, 2023
Milan, Italy
ARTPOWHER Contemporary has been invited to be part of the (un)framed section at (un)fair in Milan, Italy. A dedicated section that facilitates the relationship between independent spaces and the audience on today's contemporary art world. ARTPOWHER is delighted to present for this occasion a participatory solo show by the brilliant Internet Performance Artist Gretchen Andrew.
With Affirmation Ads, Gretchen presents her second major body of work. While she targeted the uncontrolled power of Big Tech through Google with her search engine manipulating Vision Boards, she now turns against the advertising-based structures of Facebook and Instagram and allows you to own and control your digital space, treating your Instagram feed the way you would your living room.
Andrew conceived for her solo presentation with ARTPOWHER new works on paper that use her signature elements of collage and drawing to manipulate systems of power with art, code and glitter. Affirmation Ads were recently featured in the December 2022 issue of Art – Das Kunstmagazin.
All visitors to the booth will be instructed how to digitally install the Affirmation Ads in their own social media feeds, with the aim to avoid inflicted advertisements of Instagram, receiving instead the positive message I Have Everything I Need. The first visitors to the ARTPOWHER Contemporary booth, PS1, will be invited to sit down with the artist and talk about the work while Gretchen applies the fake nails featured in the works onto the hands of those wanting to be part of her art intervention.
Affirmation Ads is based on something that has been personally advertised and targeted to Gretchen on Instagram with. By collecting one of the physical expressions of the Affirmation Ad, collectors will not only have the work installed in their home, and in their digital life, but also empowering the thousands of social media users who will see and be uplifted by it, and who will feel a new sense of control over their digital spaces.
“These physical expressions of the Affirmation Ad idea are for all who love that the impact of the works is unlimited, and believe technology should work in service of their goals and dreams, not prey on their insecurities. I made Affirmation Ads for people who believe in taking power into their own hands.“ — Gretchen Andrew
Read full Press Release
Selected works, VISION BOARDS: Series "Best MFA"
Continuing Andrew’s hack of major art world institutions, taking poetics from time in quarantine, and continuing her use of Sarah Thornton’s Seven Days in the Art World as her guide, this body of work is on the top image for the Google Search “best MFA.”
Instead of the “traditional path” of arts education, this work explores time, money, and life experience not spent on formal arts education, the artist considering life, love, loss, friends, travel, Russian novels, political engagement, drugs, disappointment, and mentors a great education.
Find out more about these two works and Andrews' art practice in our Video nterviews
