ABSTRACT

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When carried out online, every private communication has the potential to become public. The exposure of private images in the public realm via social media prompts my investigation of the previously separate realms of the public and the private, with the latter having ostensibly dissolved in the face of prolific technologies of self-display in the social sphere. While the parameters of what is acceptable online have expanded greatly, societal taboos, specifically those of and for women, remain resigned to private spaces, as can be seen in the work of contemporary artists Petra Collins and Rupi Kaur, who aggressively interrogate the intersection between the demands of the private and the logic of social media by creating intentionally provocative images for Instagram and Facebook, which, when censored, expose the outlines of what is not permissible for the public image of a female. I argue that private and public realms have not, in fact, disappeared, but, though markedly diminished, have been joined by a new third realm, a notion based on  Henri Lefebvre’s theory of the Third Thing. Outlining the possibilities for a new, liminal space, I examine the work of artists such as Nikki S. Lee, Chompoo Baritone, Cindy Sherman, and Amalia Ulman, who, I argue, exemplify this new space. Following their example, I provide three main strategies of self-curation to combat the usually tactless ways in which users create online selves. The art-historical practice of curation, a refined, highly polished process of editing and presentation, offers sophisticated ways by which we can move beyond the notion of the self as simply a set of highly marketable profiles to one based on greater singularity.