Fake Body

If you find yourself around Belfast, it opens Saturday 13th of May from 13:00 – 18:00 and runs until May 27th Tuesday – Saturday in Platform Arts (Connswater shopping centre).

FAKE BODY refers to a TikTok hashtag used to trick algorithmic moderators in order to avoid videos becoming flagged for containing partial nudity. The need to circumvent the automation and commodification of desires and personas through networked technologies is a duo concern for artists Luke van Gelderen and Lana May Fleming. By contrasting contemporary masculine identities, celebrity culture, and the modified female body with the pressure of unattainable perfection, their work speaks to the increasing difficulty of separating one’s own self-perception from the personas of those we consume. By placing these practices in conversation with one another, this duo exhibition hosts a dialogue on how identities are produced, the self-imposed objectification of the body, and the performance of vulnerability as a marker for authenticity.