Ruth Dean

Artist Statement

The theme of my work relates to identity, visibility and stereo-typing in the digital context of social media technology and the use of ‘social masks’.  Masks in social media can be seen in the form of filters, edits and even just captions. These are counted as masks in my work as the person is hiding their ‘true’ self and creating a persona-like image.

Some aspects that might be seen on social media are materialistic personalities, body confidence and social class.  Several of these can link with one another but most seem to be heavily impacted by media as a whole and the expectation of how we’re ‘meant’ to be or look.  Each set of images conveys a type of aspect or persona; the work should speak for itself.

The influencing factors that define identity such as gender, age, environment, personal experience and constructed social or cultural identities, are explored as the viewer encounters the images; their response and opinion, positive or negative, are the outcome of the work, the start of a conversation in relation to a specific societal standpoint within social media.