Not everyone is who they appear to be.
In the age of social media, that has become increasingly true – and it’s that truth that’s being explored in the latest exhibition at the Arts Council of New Westminster gallery.
The Gallery at Queen’s Park is presenting Catfish: Images of Deceit and Misrepresentation, from Sept. 15 to Oct. 7.
The solo exhibition is by Bill Edmonds, a painter in B.C. for more than 35 years. A press release notes that his first series of shows captured candid moments through his camera lens; for the past two years, he has been exploring the anonymity of the Internet and the relationships formed by strangers online.
The title of the exhibition comes from the slang definition of “catfish” – someone who pretends to be someone they’re not on social media to create false identities. The release notes that Edmonds experienced this phenomenon first-hand while searching for portrait subjects online. He would make contact with random individuals through Internet chat rooms, asking the strangers to send him a photo so he could paint their portrait in return.
In many cases, he suspected the image was not the person’s own, and he soon discovered there was an agenda attached to the photograph.
“The criteria for the start of the conversation was a common interest in art,” said Edmonds. “In the vast majority of contacts, it became apparent this was not the case, and if I did get sent a photo it was usually an unlikely match with the preceding texts.”
Edmonds used that deceit to drive him to produce the series of paintings on display at the gallery. He sketched, then painted the images on Plexiglas panels, often adding scraps of texts sent to him along with the original photo. The paintings were then photographed and printed on rag paper.
The opening reception for Catfish: Images of Deceit and Misrepresentation is on Sunday, Sept. 20 from 2 to 4 p.m. Edmonds will also be on hand on Sunday, Sept. 27 for an artist talk, also from 2 to 4 p.m., as part of Culture Days.
See www.artscouncilnewwest.org.
