Can the work of Ann Hirsch change the misconceptions of contemporary internet society upon the female body?
In the post-internet era, everyone must re-invent oneself day by day, in an attempt to survive through the world of social media and never-ending exposure. In a world where likes, loves and right swipes define your value as a human being, the web is loaded with fragments and expressions of different web-made personalities.The web, social media and YouTube accounts are packed with sexualized representations of the female body and the simulated, theatrical behaviors that derive from it. Ann Hirsch creates new female web personalities, who portray the contemporary hypes but at the same time are identified with a sense of individuality. Although she engages all the popular behaviors that are comfortably sold to the society by the media, she adds a touch of unexpected in order to clarify her point on female ideals. By releasing her diverse performance personalities into the public specter, she creates a sense of discomfort to the random internet spectator of her art. Her various web and TV performances are intended for both art and non-art audiences, interrupting their normal TV or internet experiences. She manages to get into the core of what constitutes internet female sexuality, by creating an artistic performance when and where it is most unexpected.
On her first project “Scandalishious”, she uploaded more than a 100 videos on a YouTube account during 2 years, portrayinga college student named Caroline, who gradually exposed herself and her life on the internet. All of her videos are extremely intimate and offer a piece of her body and mind to her web audience. She used those Youtube performances to decode the feelings of loneliness, desire, excitement and self-definition that are so popular with internet users. Hirsch claims on her interviews that she hoped to break down a stark dichotomy she noticed while watching vloggers and camwhores on YouTube. Women didn’t show their faces if they posted provocative clips of their bodies, and if they wanted their monologues to be taken seriously, they didn’t present themselves sexually.1What she is trying to prove is that women can be human and sexual at the same time. These attributes do not contradict each other.By becoming a camwhore for her performances, Ann was trying to decode the YouTube personas, boost her own sexuality and confidence, experiment with self-exposure and ways to represent personality, sexuality and intellect through the web.
Her project “Love affair with Frank Sherman” is concentrated on reality TV and the term of “famewhores”. She somehow managed to reintroduce herself as a reality contestant and produce an artistic performance through the realm of reality television. She accepts her obsession and passion with pop culture, as well as her secret addiction to reality TV2. She uses reality TV as an artistic medium, as artistic inspiration and as a way to research certain fascinating behaviors. She accepts the fact that reality TV and the media are out of her control, but she tries to dig deep into their universe in order to criticize and analyze them. Through her exhibitionistic artistic performances on TV, she tries to create meaningful research and concurrently offers a different humoristic, surprising interpretation of female behaviors in TV shows. In order to do that she must turn herself into the famewhore she used to look up to and criticize as a viewer.3 As she claims in her own article, she had to become a Famewhore in order to shed her own assumptions about what it means to be one.4Although she realizes what is wrong with female media interpretations, she can’t avoid being jealous of the social prestige and short-term glory they provide. She accepts her urge towards media hype. She engages the lifestyle and the behaviors of reality TV, with an eye to discover, expose and redefine them. At the same time those impersonations offered her comfort and satisfy her own need for fame. And what is impressive about Hirsch is the fact that she is not scared to admit it.
Her latest project “horny_lil_feminist”, which was exhibited on an online exhibition at the New Museum’s website, is mainly concentrated on pornography that is widely available on the internet. She uses web pornography, adding naked views of her body, genitals and secret internet behavior, lacing all this material with playfulness and intimacy. She tries to question whether someone can be a good feminist, while enjoying pornography, wedding fantasies and web exposure. This project is not only about porn and de-sexualized exposure of female genitalia. “Horny_lil_feminist” is about body love movements, Pinterest accounts, tweet obsessions, female complexes and all those things the contemporary woman is urged to desire or portray, regardless her beliefs. With her intimate and weird videos in this project, she tries to open the door for women to expose their own bodies on the internet however they want to, regardless form or size.5 The harsh DIY format enables the viewer to observe her laptop interface, her performances or random internet picks during a regular day, establishing a sense of intimacy and identification with her. After all her videos are so personal, disturbing, funny and intimate that get the viewer hooked in her controversial view of sexuality and desire.
She herself claims that the ultimate goal of her controversial body of work in media arts is the dehumanization of the female and male body on their internet and TV representations. The point she tries to make is consisted on the fact that all bodies are equal, no matter their appearance and they should be represented however their owner wishes to represent them. Women are constantly being objectified and sexualized, through the social media and the internet. It seems like there is no space for different approaches on the naked female body. If the female body and genitals are not sexualized, there is no space for them in the web. She uses pop culture and the media in an aggressive and harsh way, creating things in a fast pace, that incorporate perfectly with the post- internet era. Her work is considered feminist, following the lead of Cindy Sherman and Valie Export, constantly integrating performance to the TV or laptop screens of the viewers. She uses her own body like a performance artist but at the same time she uses contemporary technologies and the social media to expose herself, stating her personal, groundbreaking approach towards accepted female behaviors and sexuality via the Internet.
1. From [Portrait of the internet as a young girl] ,Moira Wegel
http://rhizome.org/editorial/2013/sep/30/portrait-internet-young-girl/ 30/09/2013
2. From Artist Profile: Ann Hirsch, Karen Arche ,27/03/2012
http://rhizome.org/editorial/2012/mar/7/artist-profile/
3. From Artist Profile: Ann Hirsch, Karen Arche ,27/03/2012
http://rhizome.org/editorial/2012/mar/7/artist-profile/
4. From Shaming Famewhores Part I: On Becoming A Famewhore, Ann Hirsch
http://bust.com/tv/4527-shaming-famewhores-part-i-on-becoming-a-famewhore.html
5. From culture interview: annhirsch is a horny lil feminist, Alice Newell-Hanson,11/06/2015
https://i-d.vice.com/en_us/article/ann-hirsch-is-a-horny-lil-feminist
