Jane McWhirter (Saskatoon)
Essay by Karla Griffin
January 17 – 31, 2014.
Public Reception: Friday, January 17@ 8:00.
Emerging artist Jane McWhirter has developed a Toon’s Kitchen project by drawing content directly from the “public” yet virtual space of an online dating website. First Impressions is a video artwork based on what people choose to say during their primary interactions with a complete stranger, as it plays out over the internet. Online dating allows people to step out of their shell and approach a potential mate in a way that is very detached and impersonal, mediated by a router and screen, with only an illusion of “intimate” proximity. Such encounters may give people the courage to say things that they would not say in a face to face situation.
