Dopamine Loop Holes

Dopamine Loop Holes Conceptual artist Charlene Galea, whose body often navigates between online identity and physical experiences, presents a solo performance where clothes act as a metaphor to narrate how the body is experienced within contemporary times. Galea shares and expresses her latest research on the effects social media has had on her artistic and personal life, whereby Charlene disconnected completely from all social media platforms for two months. The exhibition narrates her offline experience, thoughts and conclusions gained through this period through a performative and visual context. Charlene describes that most artists, like herself, fear that their work would go unnoticed and unacknowledged unless displayed on social media. However, artists and curators do not realise that social media affects every piece of their work once published on a social media platform. Through the two months she has spent offline she has also been researching how her emotions were free from habitual posting and scrolling. She continues to describe the algorithm as a control master which chooses which and who's work seen, no matter how intellectual, professional or original who's artwork it is. Concluding that algorithms are designed to favour selfies and saturated images with a ‘sell me’ hashtag. Punishing and rewarding us with likes or no recognition unless it traps us into one of its Dopamine Loop Holes and finds us constantly online almost, addicted to the screen. Through this body of work, she strives to share her feelings in a physical space, not a digital space by also questioning if artists should move away from social media and find a way to promote and save themselves on their own. Having control of her own creative space is what matters most to Charlene and this exhibition brings a sense of realisation of this through handwritten statements, video performance, and a pinch of humour.