Your Original is Having a Complete Human Change Meltdown Makeover

''I belonged to no one- who belonged to everyone, who had nothing- who wanted everything with a fire for every experience and an obssesion for freedom that terrified me to the point that I couldn’t even talk about- and pushed me to a nomadic point of madness that both dazzlez and dizzied me''. (Lana Del Rey - Ride)
 
Last Friday I visited a small exhibition in Breda, composed by Aynouk Tan, an extravagant looking fashion journalist/fashion icon. I'd never heard of her, but the subject of the exhibition really appealled to me.  It was about the phenomenon Tumblr and the way youngster represent themselves via this medium.

I was the first visitor that day (and it was already 3 o'clock!) but I think that's due to the fact that it's an exhibition for a small target group in a relatively small city. It would've been better if they would show it in Amsterdam, since that is far more a city for youngsters that are attracted to something like this.

Anyway, the exhibition was quite overwhelming. Interesting and also a bit confronting. There was this big room filled with gigantic television screens, which were all showing something different. So you could hear sounds from everywhere. Insecure girls talking in the webcam, photos of typical Tumblr things and of desperate American celebrities dying for attention - like Britney Spears, Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton. The thing I really liked about this exhibition, was that it was quite simple yet it really gave the feeling Tumblr also gives me. It's all very overpowering. All those different photos, celebrities, songs. One screen kept playing Lana Del Rey's song 'Ride', which includes a monologue in which she tells how much she loves the road, how lonely she was, how she kept striving for freedom and living fast. Fascinating monologue.

Aynouk Tan wanted to show how young girls (and boys as well) strive to show their unique selves, while that only leads to everyone being the same. Everyone wants to look different and unique, but the result is that everyone looks rather the same. I find this really interesting and I'm actually working on an article that has a lot to do with this.

I think Aynouk Tan did a good job by showing what she wanted to show: the loneliness, the fakeness and the insecurities of a lot of young people using Tumblr. It was a shame that the Tumblr she made herself was very disappointing. It only had a few photos on it and I don't think you can call that: getting under the skin of a blogger. There's more to that than finding a few photos, which also appeared in your exhibition. But that's just my opinion!