Emily McGuire’s exhibition, “Imagine Being Attractive” explores the complex relationship between Tumblr blogging, fashion, and female identity.
“Imagine Being Attractive” considers how fashionable female identity is performed through found images and anonymity on Tumblr blogs. From her perspective as a participant observer on Tumblr, Emily’s practice examines the ways in which Tumblr blogs are a kind of surface on which fashionable female identity is articulated as a performative act, playing out as a ceaseless process of becoming. “Imagine Being Attractive” also brings together questions of how Emily’s experiences with Tumblr are in some ways indicative of a generational engagement with social media as a means to articulate identity and negotiate the flow of images in our increasingly visual world.
Emily’s creative practice applies the materials and processes of garment making to explore the relationship between fashion and digital culture. She primarily experiments with textiles, garment making processes, fabric printing, and text. This is her first solo exhibition.