Mónika Sziládi
My work investigates how the construction of the human subject may or may not be independent from acts of–and a culture of–consumption. American commerce offers broad opportunities for individuals to re-describe themselves while simultaneously, through advertising and media imagery, proposes contrived and set categories for consumers to simulate. I capture moments and explore environments where subjects are caught negotiating these two poles–one of sweeping possibility and self-recreation, the other of handed-down poses and acquiescence to the constraints of overriding trends and fads. I am interested in exploring how our perception of reality and artifice has changed since our first amazement at the effects of media half a decade ago: does mass communication have an evolutionary effect on human interaction and behavior?
In Wide Receivers I examine how society and human behavior are becoming simultaneously tribalized and atomized amidst the ever increasing noise of mass (over)communication, digital media, and self-broadcasting. My photographs are digital collages constructed from images that I shoot at public relations, networking events and at meet-ups of subcultures that were formed and (or) are operating as a result of social connectivity on the Internet. Compositing and cropping the source photos heightens the intragroup dynamics and throws off the viewer’s ability to find a primary point-of-view, thus generating an underlying disruption: the participants, while appearing connected within a social network, also appear atomized in a contrived pose or uncertain gesture.
Untitled (Pledge), 2010, Archival Inkjet Print, 20×38 inches
Untitled (Golden Paw), 2011, Archival Inkjet Print, 20×39.5 inches
Untitled (Ribs), 2009, Archival Inkjet Print, 20×36 inches
Untitled (Bar), 2009, Archival Inkjet Print, 20×42 inches
Untitled (Hair), 2010, Archival Inkjet Print, 20 x 40.75 inches
Mónika Sziládi was born and raised in Budapest, Hungary and lives in New York. She holds an MFA in Photography from Yale (2010) and a Maitrise in Art History and Archaeology from Sorbonne, Paris (1997). In 2008 she received the Gesso Foundation Fellowship to attend Skowhegan and she is a 2012 resident at Smack Mellon. She is a winner of The Philadelphia Museum of Art Photography Competition (2010), a recipient of the Alice Kimball English Traveling Fellowship (2010) and a Juror’s Pick by Julie Saul and Alec Soth, Work-in-Progress Prize, Daylight/CDS Photo Awards. Selected exhibitions include Point of Purchase, DUMBO Arts Center, NYC (2006); Lost and Found, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden, Germany (2007); Designations, NT Gallery, Bologna, Italy (2008); Market Forces, Carriage Trade Gallery, NYC and Galerie Erna Hecey, Brussels (2009); US Featured Exhibition, Flash Forward Festival, Toronto (2010); 31 Women in Art Photography, Hasted Kraeutler, NYC. (2012). msziladi.com