How many times have you been eating dinner at a restaurant, and the person next to you breaks out a smart phone to take a photo of the perfect plate of food? It happens all the time, which can be a little disturbing.
When all of these photos are uploaded to central informational resources, they portray imagery that is too good to be true – flawless perhaps? But the real world is perfectly flawed, not the neatly packaged and presented Instagram-fed photos that proliferate the internet. If our collective viewpoints revolve around such perfection, then we have created a world with unrealistic expectations that must ‘slapped back to reality’.
Every 4-6 weeks, UB Art Galleries rotate different short videos by regional, national and international artists. The series is known as SCREEN Projects.
Coming up, from April 2 to May 26, the 24/7 public art project will feature the Buffalo-based collaborative ‘virocode’ – No Plan for the Future, an art project that has been ongoing since November 9, 2016 (it started after the 2016 presidential election).
By viewing Hashtag #noplanforthefuture, we are subjected to a plethora of colorfully imperfect images that have been curated by Peter D’Auria and Andrea Mancuso (virocode). The images alter our expectations when it comes to portraying food (mainly desserts), as well as some other typically delicious-appearing items. These items have been melted, smashed, broken, mistreated, abused… and somehow magically brought back to life in the process. Real life, that is.
The artists have embraced ‘the slow unfolding cultural accident that we are in’ and set out to digest the torrent of malnourishing disinformation presented as America’s desserts.
UB Anderson Gallery: Wednesday-Saturday 11AM-5PM and Sunday 1-5PM
UB Art Gallery, CFA: Tuesday-Friday 11AM-5PM and Saturday 1-5PM