Every Tuesday, HeK shows a net-based project created especially for our digital series HeK Net Works. Here comes No. 8! This week we would like to introduce you to Faith Holland.

Faith Holland

Faith Holland is a New York-based American artist whose work focuses on deconstructing images of sexual bodies in popular culture. In particular, Holland practices a feminist re-appropriation of pornographic imagery through a fetishization of technology as a performative and subversive act. Her work includes performances, videos, installations, and thematic websites. GIFs are an important part of her work, of which the "Visual Orgasms" series is exemplary. These are a colourful and joyful metaphorical visualization of orgasms in multiple forms, such as abundance of waterfalls and fireworks. For the HeK Net Works series, Holland has created a new GIF, which focuses rather on the theme of distance due to isolation and the desire, or frustration, of the sense of touch that is replaced by virtual online encounters.

The GIF is visible from 19.5 to 26.5.2020 here: http://faithholland.com/touch/touch.html

Statement by Faith Holland about her work "Touchscreen" (2020):

"In Touchscreen, different hands reach out to touch the camera. It appears that they rub up against the screen itself, but they are simulating touching you. With these caresses, the viewer and the screen are collapsed; we are asked to identify with a flat, unfeeling piece of glass. In this new environment where touch has become dangerous, we accept this simulation more willingly, just like the simulations of parties, meetings, and classes."