Digital artist Molly Soda – the ultimate Internet queen and sparkly webcam princess – returns to London for her second solo show, Comfort Zone, at the Annka Kultys Gallery.
Molly Soda uses the Internet as a tool, a format and a platform. She creates work from her own bedroom, which is then transmitted through the Internet to other girls’ bedrooms. It creates an intimate, raw, and authentic feeling.
Comfort Zone exhibits Molly’s work that exists on the Internet, but in a physical form. It is the girly pop princess aesthetic of the exhibition that creates an evoking viewing experience of her digital art forms.
Soda, being a self–acclaimed web princess, uses webcams and selfies in a way that builds a form of intimacy with her viewers – creating a feeling of being one–to–one in her private space.
Molly Soda brings a physical presence to her digital art
The exhibition examines the way we humans engage with the digital world in our every day lives. Being an Internet queen, Molly has witnessed the way the Internet has changed since she entered cyber-space.
Comfort Zone follows on from the artist’s first solo exhibition, From my Bedroom to Yours. The infamous webcam princess exhibited her digital–based work using formats like New Hive, GIFs and webcam videos. Her work reflects what girls do in their bedrooms , a private space, and transfigures it into a public space.
The artist’s second solo exhibition extends this idea. The exhibition focuses on the way our private spaces, a “guard” from the public, are invaded. She explores the way the Internet has become a part of our existence, and how even in our private spaces we are continuously abused by it.
Molly Soda transforms the Annka Kultys Gallery into a pink bubble with baby pink walls, pink florescent lighting, pink TVs and her selfies pinned to all the walls.
As you enter the space, you feel comfort. Soda’s work, which primarily uses digital platforms, is projected into a physical space. She focuses on making the gallery as aesthetically pleasing as possible, and as comfortable as possible, which is why it is pink. She wants to reflect her own surroundings.
She occupies the gallery with a series of print, video-based pieces and selfies, all viewed either on her MacBook, on pink TV screens or as screenshot images.
The walls of the gallery are covered in non-digital pieces, such as clickbait-style adverts with Soda’s face in place of the model and resin sculptures attached to the walls, covered in mirrors, sweets, make-up and CDs – all objects we keep in our private space, which are now publicly viewed.
The artist’s aim is to explore how even in our most private space- our bedrooms- we’re not alone.
Comfort Zone combines a range of multimedia experiences
The video, All by Myself (2016), is projected for 18 hours using a monitor display. The piece is a collection of footage retrieved from the artist’s photo booth on her MacBook. The video clips from this piece were unintended for the public view.
You feel that you’re entering Molly Soda’s private space; you feel the emotions projected through the screen of the monitor.
Other video work includes All I have is my iPhone (2016), and phone zone (2016) – featuring the artist lying in her bed with her iPhone, checking her messages. An intimate and personal view of the artist.
The artist’s selfies are exhibited on the walls of the gallery as C-prints on aluminium, including I’m funny and I cry a lot and WRU.
The artist explores the idea of Internet click-bait with her works How to remove dark spots and Why she Never Married. Prints are mounted on the pale pink walls of the gallery, taken from screenshot images from Soda’s computer.
The pop-princess appears in I am a Loner Dottie, sitting on a chair wearing a bathing suit against a pink background that contrasts with the green light reflected on to her skin.
Plastered on the walls are cut-outs of negative comments the artist has received on Instagram and Facebook. This is an insight into how Soda’s life is personally affected by living publicly online. This expresses the way we engage with our devices.
Molly Soda connects to other girls’ bedrooms as part of her examination of selfie culture
The selfie queen’s Comfort Zone is a place of reflection on how today’s social media–obsessed and selfie–obsessed society works. She explores the way our constant instant messaging, sharing, retweeting, tweeting and liking penetrates our day-to-day lives and is a violation of our privacy.
It is a raw, authentic view on the way the public world of social media and the Internet is embedded into our ‘private’ lives, and that we are never alone.
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Comfort Zone at the Annka Kultys Gallery until November 12, 2016
Gallery at 472 Hackney Road, London E2 9EQ – Open: Wed-Sat, 12:00-6:00pm
All images by Damian Griffiths, courtesy of the Annka Kultys Gallery.