Born Nowhere / Born Now Here
Laís Pontes is a London-based photographic artist exploring the manifold ways that characters are developed and constructed on social media platforms. Inspired by the multiculturalism of her home country Brazil, Pontes investigates the notion of social media as an extension of the self and the fluidity of identity in contemporary society. To this end, the artist uses her own body and life to stage experiments on various social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram and OkCupid. Her process allows others to directly contribute to the creation of the work, encouraging viewers to develop a critical view of social media and its effects on our everyday lives. In Born Nowhere, the artist created a series of self portraits and modified them using digital technology transforming them into a diverse cast of female personalities whose character was developed through comments made on Facebook. In Born Now Here she revisited the characters and deepened her socio-psychological investigation by developing their crowd-sourced identities into real activities, relationships and behaviours.
Artist Profile(s)
Laís Pontes
Born in Fortaleza, Brazil, Laís Pontes is an interdisciplinary artist who currently lives and works in London. Her artwork is a socio-psychological investigation into social media issues and contemporary concerns. She is interested in the construction of identity in the digital age, as well as the role social media and its characters play in this construction. In the same way she uses a camera and performance, Pontes uses virtual platforms like Facebook and Instagram as tools in the process of creation. Pontes gives viewers the opportunity to take over the role of artist, allowing the artwork to shift in meaning during the collaborative artistic process. She invites viewers to experience, interact, and develop a critical view of the effect social media has on society and identity. Pontes graduated from the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York in 2011, and received a Master of Fine Arts in 2014 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Her work artwork is currently on display in both private and public museum collections.