No.1
When she first entered the digital space,
It seemed strangely open and exciting.
(Pictured here, said digital space and doorway entry)
No.2
Although seemingly alone in the previous scene, in reality she was never alone, but one of three.
Never alone together, they created worlds as sisters.
(Pictured here, their favourite frangipani tree in the front garden. Someone stole her branches one afternoon, but they still loved the world she made all the same)
No.3
When they drew together it was with their whole bodies.
Complete concentration.
So much so that one day, Emily and Alice forgot to watch Maxi as she strode herself down to the park, alone.
(Pictured here, don’t worry, Molly the dog barked and showed them where to find her)
No.4
She grew up wanting to be an artist, a drawer like her mum.
She liked communicating to people her new and imagined worlds.
(Pictured here, on the phone with granny, mum’s drawing board in the centre of the room, blue world’s in process)
No.5
When she first started sharing worlds in the digital space, it felt expansive.
She started photographing worlds as well as drawing worlds.
Slowly, they combined.
(Pictured here, a drawing of a feeling——what she experienced photographing Antony Gormley’s sculptures, Lake Ballard, Wangkatha Country)
No.6
She could cut and make worlds from found things.
She shared the ones she didn’t like to glue down.
She liked how these scenes had shadows like people.
(Pictured here, some of her favourite characters in their field of choice)
No.7
But then came the birth of two separate digital identities.
ali(banana) and big al(artist).
One personal. One for art.
She dressed up as this banana self for halloween at the burger shop where she worked.
A customer, a child, asked if she was a giant burnt chip.
(Pictured here - in truth, sometimes she felt like one)
No.8
But then it became very clear,
photos of the self were more popular in the digital space.
A shift into self as project, rather than project showing self.
She remembers wanting everyone to see her shoes in this photograph, more so than the artwork.
(Pictured here - the infamous shoes)
No.9
But then the private self, public self, cut out self, began to merge.
There was little art being made anymore, and if it did, the question of ‘how to show’ came first.
The artist became content herself.
She became good at posing.
Even her cat became an accessory.
(Pictured here - her cat did a pretty good job)
No.10
Where had the little artist who made worlds gone?
Where had all the drawings disappeared to?
(Pictured here, here she is!)
she took some time to find her again...the little artist...
No.11
Now, I look at this photo.
I reflect — when this photo was taken — art meant making things together.
(Pictured here - the sisters grown up)
No.12
The digital space led me to believe that we create as individuals,
(but do not believe this for a moment).
As human beings, as the little artists we all are, we exist with, become with, the people and places that entangle us.
It is in this process, this interconnected making, that we create and imagine worlds.
(Pictured Here - a real self-portrait)
No.13
Now, here she is leaving the digital space.
It will be strangely open and exciting.
(Pictured here, said digital world and doorway exit)
13 Years was a live creative project that served as a critical self-reflection on the artist’s own use of social media. The project explored how social platforms shape creativity, their impact on children through early adulthood, and what it was like to be a ‘guinea pig’ teenager during the dawn of the digital age.
Depicting 13 scenes, images were shared on the artist’s Instagram in sequence, accompanied by a ‘narrator’ describing each scene of the artist’s experience through time. Each scene blurred archival photographs from the artist’s own social media, childhood, and personal catalogue of creative work. These images were precisely cut and woven into the realm of paper space as ‘digital’ space, with blue pencil adding a handmade, childlike sense of being and creating in the world.
In her article Resisting the Content Mindset, Esther Anatolitis explores the history and emergence of ‘content’ as art in the digital age. Anatolitis begins her essay by asking, “When did the word ‘content’ become normalized as a catch-all for creative work?” Reading this article was the final affirmation the artist needed to leave the platform and begin investigating alternative, personal ways of sharing creative work——(not in an “I hate this” way, but more in a “maybe there are other ways to do this” way).
Playing with depth, digital space, and shifting boundaries of privacy, this interactive artwork was an intriguing project for the artist in ‘leaving’ the perceived ‘necessity’ of Instagram as a practicing artist.
To share in a new way, the artist started the Dear Reader Project, a letter.
Click here to read Resisting the Content Mindet by Esther Anatolitis
To watch an interview between Gabor Mate and Mo Gawdat, click Social Media, Manipulation, and the Illusion of Free Thought
To read about Anthony Gromley’s sculptures from the collage (Lake Ballard), you can read Gromley’s link to the article Inside Lake Ballard by Hugh Brody.
2025/08/26 13 Years
CATALOGUE : Archived
LOCATION : Wadandi Country, Cowaramup, Western Australia
this project is dedicated to my sisters Emily and Maxi