Matt Held: Painting Faces on Facebook

Here's possibly one of my favorite rags-to-riches story (well, fame definitely if not riches for the moment): Once there was an almost unknown Brooklyn artist having a painter's block, struggling for inspiration at his in-house studio with two children running around (one crawling to be more precise), then all of a sudden he got his "A-ha!" moment as he painted his wife's new Facebook portrait. He started making more of such portraits, starting with his friends - the project then takes off and becomes an internet phenomenon. He received coverage from publications such as New York Magazine, Juxtapoz, and of course, numerous bloggers - the media attention goes even as far as across the continent in countries such as Germany and Italy. He was also recently invited to a talk for the 1stfans member community at the Brooklyn Museum and now preparing for an exhibition at a gallery in New Haven, CT in May, along with many other exciting things to come.

Matt Held has a group on Facebook, by the name of "I'll have my portrait painted by Matt Held." For the members who joined the group and added him as a Facebook friend, he would look through their profiles and select the interesting ones (and yes, it is as subjective as it sounds) to paint as portraits. There are some rules however: the picture must be in color, no pets and no children. Small props and quirkiness would help. His goal was to paint 200 pieces, and now the group has close to 4,000 members - the odds are 1 in 20, not too bad for now, is it? Once a portrait gets painted, the sitter (facebooker rather) would get a free JPEG for the finished work and priority in purchasing the portrait.

It is interesting to see that there is an increasing amount of artists that begin to utilise social network and the whole networking phenomenon as their media platform and inspiration. In Matt's case, he brings in the age-old idea of portraiture and re-appropriate it to the modern world of Facebook. The project itself, is perhaps best explained by the artist's own statement:

With the development of social networking sites, I've developed an interest in how people take simple or complex snapshots of themselves, post them to their page as a representation of who they are and what they want people to see. It is an interesting form of control and, in a way, self-preservation. However, there is a strong likelihood that many people who don't know you will see this photo representation and make passing judgments as to who you may or may not be, much in the same way we make passing judgments on people we see in our neighborhoods every day.

Take a collection of these portraits and put them into the context of a gallery space or like setting, and you see a community of individuals - their likeness elevated and memorialized like the original commissioners of portrait painting; the rich and powerful – displayed as a portrait's original intent: expression of an individuals' character and moral quality.

Pop Quiz at the Brooklyn Museum

To complement opening of the exhibition Unearthing the Truth: Egypt's Pagan and Coptic Sculpture, the Brooklyn Museum presents a pop quiz for all to test their skills on identifying genuine ancient artifacts from their modern reproductions. Besides telling apart a fake from an original, very often an artifact was also modified partly over its course of history, i.e. it is an original but someone pimped it at some point. See if you can tell the difference over the nine images of Egyptian/Coptic sculptures. A hint from yours truly: materials, colours, craftsmanship tend to reflect their origins in time. 

Do you think this is an effective means to promote an exhibition? Let us know in the comment box!

Good luck and happy quizzing!

The First Post of 2009!!

In celebrating the 101st post of the TEC-CH blog, as well as the first post of the year 2009, I decided to write an entry that involves the magical and wonderful number of 1, that signifies excellence and brand new beginnings. Here are my recent interesting finds that contain the number 1:

• 1stfans at the Brooklyn Museum: Known for its originality, the Brooklyn Museum is offering a new "socially networked" membership that connects its members via online access, where they can socialize with each other during monthly exclusive events, as well as on its Twitter Art Feed. The museum also invites artists to post on the feed at a regular basis, using Twitter as art medium. For the month of January, An Xiao is featured on the 1stfans Twitter Art Feed. A direct quote from her artist statement says, "Through tweeting Morse code, I aim to explore instant communication’s new direction by recalling its history. Rather than important issues, I will communicate daily minutiae, such as “Brushing my teeth” and “Tired. Need coffee.” Such usage of telegraph technology would have been inconceivable in its heyday. In so doing, I want to encourage 1stfans viewers to examine the evolution of instant communication and what purpose, exactly, is served by sharing such minor details of one’s life." (A big thank-you goes to Shelley for showing me the website!)

• One word: The idea is simple - the website features one new word a day, and you have 60 seconds to write about it. After submitting your piece, you can also see what others wrote about the same word. It is both an exhilarating mental exercise and an interesting take on demonstrating multiple perspectives. Its simplicity would also be highly applicable to museum activities, as the word range may be narrowed into one that is related to certain exhibition topics, the activity does not require much time to participate, and the end result is that visitors/users may see the various perceptions of a certain concept, without the interference of a curator. 

• One Laptop Per Child (OLPC): The project has generated so much buzz that probably some readers have already heard of it, but for the sake of good causes I think it deserves yet another mention here. With the creation of the so-called "XO Laptop", the OLPC project aims to provide one connected laptop every child in developing countries, consequently giving them the opportunity to learn via computer use and network access. Find out about various ways to get involved on the OLPC website. With the museum's social responsibility of enhancing learning in mind, how can we contribute to initiatives as such? When I was in Bern and in Warsaw, more than once have I seen the XO Laptop featured in exhibition displays, helping the project to become known to the world. The focuses, however, were on the intriguing designs of this low-cost laptop rather than that of its missions. Perhaps a collaboration in educational programming development is in order? If you have an idea, leave it in the comment box!