Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/641424
#CULTUREDMAG AMALIA ULMAN @AMALIAULMAN In a 2009 interview with The New York Times, video artist Ryan Trecartin observed, "People born in the '90s are amazing. I can't wait until they all start to make art." This set über-curator Hans Ulrich Obrist's wheels spin- ning. Together with fellow curator Simon Castets, Obrist launched 89plus, an initiative that seeks to test Tre- cartin's theory by identifying and promoting artists born in 1989 or later. If Obrist christens this generation "the children of the Internet," then these are offspring raised on Kim Kardashian and the culture of aspirational selfies. "We live in the electric economy of looking good," Amalia Ulman announced at a 2014 panel on artists who use Instagram as their primary medium. The Argentinean artist—one of the first real starlets to emerge from 89plus—was there to officially unveil Excellences & Per- fections, a four-month project in which Ulman adapted the traditional "fallen woman" narrative into a "story in pictures" unfolding across socially coded selfies posted on the artist's own Instagram feed. Over five months, her adopted online persona, "Amalia Ulman," moves to the city bright-eyed and full of dreams, only to fall vic- tim to her own narcissism. Using hashtags and visual clichés like food porn and bathroom mirror poses, "Amalia" transitions through three stages: "innocence" (represented by cutesy images of flower petals, uneaten cupcakes and baby rabbits); "sin" (hungry selfies in black panties or holding a gun); and finally, "redemp- tion" (juice cleanses, yoga poses.) Never once did Ulman break character, gaining nearly 90,000 new followers in the process. The piece launched on April 19, 2014, with an unassuming post of the words "Part I" and a comment of the title of the series. It came to a close on September 14, with an image of a rose captioned "THE END—EXCELLENCES AND PERFECTIONS." Along the way, "Amalia" cared for her following, crowdsourcing beauty tips, sharing smoothie recipes and dabbling in product placement. Ultimately, Ulman considers Excellences & Per- fections to be "a project about our flesh as object, your body as an investment. How do we market this flesh? How do we price the meat and how long will it stay fresh?" This winter, the piece will leap from social media to the museum when a selection of images con- stituting the series will be displayed in London at the Whitechapel Gallery and the Tate Modern. —Kate Sutton If Hans Ulrich Obrist christens this generation "the children of the Internet," then these are offspring raised on Kim Kardashian and the culture of aspirational selfies. COURTESY ©AMALIA ULMAN 166 CULTURED Excellences & Perfections (Instagram Update, 18th June 2014), 2015