Social Media Solitude

We proudly present ‘Social Media
Solitude’, the third solo exhibition of Line Gulsett with TORCH
gallery. Like in her earlier works, the new paintings and drawings in
this show cover our modern state of mind, one that is distracted by a
constant stream of images and information. While being more connected
than ever, people feel more alone than ever. It is commonly accepted
that social media plays a large part in this distress. Gulsett takes
this lost connection to reality and its causes to create images that
force us to contemplate our solitude.

Social Media has become an extension of
our thought in a Cartesian sense. According to Descartes, as long as
we think we can know that we exist (I think therefor I am). This is
called solipsism; the notion that the only thing that exists, is
one’s own self and mind. By using social media, our thoughts and
experiences (through which we exist) come through an extension. These
experiences are merely simulations of reality, since it creates an
environment in which only the user exists. The experiences had
through the social media are approximations of reality and social
interaction is contrived. Social media simulates social interaction,
but fails to deliver what immediate social interaction can.

This illusion of integration results in
less solidarity. It increases social anxiety, depression and
insecurity, so social circumstances inflict mental health issues. Not
being part of their community is one of the three kinds of causes for
suicide in Emile Durkheim's work Le Suicide (1897). He argues that
what he calls egoistic suicide, occurs when people are insufficiently
integrated in a society. Using social media to experience life is
disconnecting people from their community and feels similar to the
cause Durkheim was writing about.

Line Gulsett (1981, Norway) lives and
works in The Hague, The Netherlands. She graduated from the Royal
Academy of the Arts in The Hague in 2011 and has exhibited worldwide
ever since. In 2015, she completed a residency with the Leipzig
international artist program and in 2018, East side International
residency in Los Angeles. In 2018, she took part in the exhibition
Lebenszeichen in der Kunst in Weserburg Museum für moderne kunst,
Bremen She is a member of the Norwegian Artists Association and her
work is represented by TORCH gallery in Amsterdam and Camara Oscura
in Madrid.