WYA: The Show about the Party You Missed
March 3 to July 16, 2017 Jepson Center
The Jepson Center’s #art912 lounge featured this unique collaboration between local artists Will Penny and Cameron Allen investigating constructed and mediated reality. The installation was part of Telfair Museums’ #art912 initiative, a dedicated platform to raise the visibility and promote the vitality of artists from Savannah.
“hey, where you at????
I’m here at the party,
…pretty sure I am. It looks like it might be over. This place is in ruins.”
This is a show about the party you missed. WYA (Where You At?) is about the fear of missing out (FOMO) caused by the extreme and constant onslaught of social media updates with highlights of what you missed and the whereabouts of the next party to come. WYA is about shifting through those mental states of location. WYA is not about the present. The present is lost the second it’s posted. Social media is the modern party. When we go to parties, we’re essentially attending to alter our realities to some degree. Much like what we may seek while we stare into our phones. Some of the sights in this show may resemble the aftermath of that party you heard was so lit.
…when the sun comes up and all that’s left over are crushed cans and ‘solo’ cups, flickering lights, decor ruins, and that one sad little dancing party light who didn’t get the memo that it’s over.
About the Artist: Cameron Allen
Cameron Allen is an emerging new talent, presenting his original take on visual content in his brand of photographic interpretation. In recent work, Allen’s inspirations, though born from a traditional Southern genesis, seek to use the virginal landscape of social media and iPhone based artwork to highlight the social deterioration of human intimacy created by the onslaught of modern technology. His work floats dreamily in nostalgic nuances and represents something both commonly relevant yet strangely distant.
About the Artist: Will Penny
Will Penny was raised in Southern Ontario and currently resides in Savannah, Georgia. He has received a diploma in Fine Art from Fanshawe College in London, Ontario and a BFA and MFA in Painting from The Savannah College of Art and Design, where he currently serves as adjunct Professor of Foundation Studies. Penny’s artworks dissolve traditional boundaries of art and design. His art explores tensions between the tangible space a painting inhabits, the impact of digital technology on fabricated forms and illusionistic environments. By creating systems of interactivity with digital technologies, his art confronts the way information is generated, transmitted and received. He has exhibited in The United States and Canada.
