JOMO

J Konno, Danie, Ben, and Harry Potter in the Tub at Balboa Park with Posts, Coffee, and Homemade Lemon Cookies, ink jet, sun printing ink, mirror, water transfer, and other mixed media, 60 x 40 inches, 2015-6

 

Aurelia in the Tub by the Garden with Favorite Book and Her Feed, 27 x 46 inches, soap ink jet uv sensitive ink paper and plastic, 2015

 

Rosa in the Tub with Two Favorite Books, Insta Posts, and Cast To-Go Container, soap, ink jet, sun printing ink, and other mixed media, 60 x 45 x 15 inches, 2015-6

 

Dad in the Tub under the Trees with Current Book and FB Wall Screenshots, sun printing ink, ink jet, and other mixed media, 41 x 36 inches, 2015

 

Http://www.Instagram.com/BCtkTMegtOF/?Taken-by=GavlakGallery, 36 x 45 Inches, bathroom mirror, ink jet, sun printing ink, water transfer, and other mixed media on paper, 2015-6

 

T in the Tub with Sushi and Text Data (With Consent), soap, ink jet, sun printing ink, mirror, water transfer, and other mixed media, 60 x 40 inches, 2015-6

 

Narsiso in the Tub at Colorado Lagoon with Stamped Pad Thai and Current Book, 35 x 44 inches, ink jet, sun printing ink, mirror, water transfer, and other mixed media, 2016

 
 

From 2015-6, I began exploring the possibility of filtering out the worst aspects of online social connection by restructuring my artistic practice. My rules limited my own social media involvement to coordinating volunteers for live portrait sketching sessions and collecting visual research depicting sitters’ preferred representation online. I met up with members of my online social network individually in outdoorsy, nature locations of their choosing. Each sitter reclined in a bathtub filled with freshly washed pillows and blankets. In exchange for their support, I made or bought each sitter something nice to eat. These public, time-based performances prohibited phones, allowing us to detach from our tethered reality to reconnect in a renewed way afterwards. I further processed the live portrait sketches from these meetings into large works on paper, incorporating screen-grabbed collage elements of the sitter’s self representations online, sun printing, and ink jet DIY printmaking.