Fringe Arts Bath festival exhibition 21st century Neanderthal

FaB3 space, 15 New Bond Street, Bath, UK

24th May – 9th June 2019

curator: Nina Jesih

This exhibition is a research into today’s dating world seen through artists’ eyes, mixed with every day’s righteousness and immorality.

Online dating is a noncommittal opportunity to screen through potential suitors and eliminate the alleged rotten eggs immediately. It is fun and easy, but it’s not real, it’s digital.

We have all heard about the horror stories, following encounters on dating platforms. And we have all heard the success stories and happily ever afters. But why do we consciously put ourselves in supposed vulnerable situations when meeting the person from the dating site that we think we fancy?

Online profiles can be a fallacy, with all the fake information the other user wants us to believe. Presenting yourself online is like writing a fairy tale (not necessarily consciously). Likewise, chatting to people online is writing what you think the other person would like to hear to get under their skin.

This impersonality of online dating caused me to question the behaviour of current society. I invited artists to step into this digital world where fantasy and reality blur, where the lines cross and the perfect version of the truth is never quite what it seems. Communication is contorted as the rules no longer apply.

This exhibition challenges and exposes these online experiences through art and touches upon the personal histories of participating artists and their views on romantic relationships.

I would also like to invite visitors the share their dating adventures and join us in uncovering the struggles of contemporary infatuation.