crommaea

CROMMAEA

Collaborating since 2012, both Marta Gorski and Alana Biffert  focus their art on human interaction. In Crommaea, they consider the consequence of intimacy and the impact relationships leave on the psyche. To perceive the truth of these interactions relies heavily on the viewer’s own self-awareness. This work is about voyeurism, body image, and the double-ended perspective of the lens. We are asking our viewers to look mindfully at our physical structure, our cells, our universal skin, and to pause, allowing the sensory system to take in our anatomy.

CROMMAEA 2021 On Social Media and Mindfulness

Humans have long objectified themselves and other people.  Instant gratification and consumerism are making us flippant, expectant, disposable. As the unfamiliar boundaries of the digital era expand, our cultural facets shift transforming humanity into the land of objecthood.

Social media interaction is taking on a universal skin as it weaves itself into the fabric of our society. Now more than ever, our screens are saturated with images of other people’s lives, bodies, and the objects that surround us. We have a global pandemic that has created and inspired the world to build up its online presence. But even way before this global pandemic had started, whatever your occupation, race, religious beliefs, gender, dietary needs, sexual preferences are, and the list goes on and on; there is a social media platform available for you to connect, with like minded people. This can be and is one the most wonderful parts of social media and the internet. The ability to connect with others all around the world is a beautiful thing. It’s easy to understand why we are starting to see people from all generations sign-up. Social media is a form of empowerment. Instagram, Facebook and snapchat are some of the platforms designed for any individual to use. Allowing us to have the freedom to express our choices and have our voices heard. It permits the lost to be found and the rejected to find acceptance in a shared understanding of reality, granting the world access to personal growth programs.

There are questions that are being brought-up in reflection of this growing sector of the World Wide Web. In no way, have we been able to predict what the effects of this will be. It is a challenge to find the right place to begin this conversation as this topic is broad and overwhelming. Though there are multiple avenues that need to be discussed, “CROMMAEA” addresses our online practise and identity, opening a platform to divulge and explore the dark and light side of social media posting. We want to acknowledge the intimate moments revealed and eliminate the stigmas attached to the body. This work mimics our obsession with public access to private spaces and considers the interaction between the subject, the lens, and the viewer. We want to invite others to reflect on the directional pulls we cannot see that can influence us without evening knowing. The allure of the gaze is a catalyst to absorb content and further investigation challenges the mindfulness of the onlooker.

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The growth has been exponential and a cause for attention to be drawn as everything is online now. There is so much value placed on our online presence these days that we forget to be mindful in the moment, as social media can hold our attention mindlessly. There is growing confusion between facts and opinions developing as we can all form and shape our own versions of reality. Our intention is not to attempt the unravelling of the cleverly disguised manipulations that form and influence our screens but to bring the idea of mindfulness into everyday posting. With airbrushing and other editing techniques at our fingertips, what used to be exclusive to media use in the past is vastly becoming apart of our everyday photo adjustments. People are self censoring out of fear of not being good enough. Being rejected, trolled or cancelled is a becoming a real fear for younger generations as technology sores forward and human beings remain the same.  

Rapid fire objectification is taking place as we habitually flip through and scroll over image after image. Lines are being blurred as our interpretation of what is real and what is not shift. Learning how to be in control of programming your own mind is so important. We are driven daily, through visual and auditory influences without realizing it. Our minds are in a vulnerable place as we sift through our feeds thinking its without consequence when in fact our invisible enemy pulls our focus and awareness. This compromises our self-worth, value system and self compassion as our inner dialogue is pushed and conformed unconsciously. Being able to shift our mindset into a conscious awareness allowing mindfulness to be the state in which we digest this dialogue is the challenge at hand. So first let us clarify what mindfulness is. According to Dr Jenn Gaunsulas’s research and Book ‘From Madness to Mindfulness’ she writes;

 “The effort to attend, nonjudgmentally, to present-moment experience, and to sustain this attention over time, with the aim of cultivating stable, nonreactive, metacognitive awareness.” A shorter definition is that mindfulness is focused awareness in the present moment, without judgment”pg54.

During this time, the winter season and our global battle with physical distancing we are window shopping as much for objects as we are for humans. In a global grab for attention, we spend our days scrolling for relevance. We flip through shot after shot with flaring opinions as humans slip in and out of the land of objecthood. Steadily and intensely without shame, this is becoming a prominent way of spending our time. This is an exploration of the digital era, not a criticism, it’s about bridging the gap between the people in front of and behind the screen.

THE overview

 The misconstrued perspectives of social media outlets are broadcast through strategically composed profiles causing us to question self-worth and habitually compromise our identity. This creates insecurities in the social fabric as we lose our courage and self-love with repetitive overexposure. This work explores what it means to be seen and be vulnerable without shame. ‘CROMMAEA’ is self-identity, creating our own illusions and distortions, at a macro level, each layer composed by perspectives of the body.

To accompany this body of work we have put together an interview with Dr Jenn Gunsaullus author of ‘From Madness to Mindfulness, Reinventing Sex for Women’.

Dr. Jenn Gunsaullus has a thought-provoking practice with a prominent voice in her field. She is disarming the difficult and complex grey areas of sexuality and instinct. For this conversation, we invite participants to conquer impulsive behaviors during these confusing times with practical ideas about being on a mindful path. As friends and colleagues, we want to share intimate concerns for what it means to be human and follow the pull of nature. Through this body of work we want to evoke compassion with imperfection, accepting what makes us vulnerable makes us beautiful.

‘CROMMAEA’ mimics our obsession with public access to private spaces and considers the interaction between the subject, the lens, and the viewer. The Pilchuck Gallery Window offers us a unique opportunity to elaborate on past collaborative concepts in a new piece, and to focus the viewer through another lens, interacting with the general public. With parts obscured and parts polished, the cast glass presents us with the perfect anatomy and feeds that pull to investigate. The allure of the gaze is a catalyst for the visual freedom to absorb content and further investigation challenges the mindfulness of the onlooker. We want to question what's beneath the skin through a bird's eye view of the human condition and what it means to tell a true story from the heart.