Missed Connections

Friday, May 15th to Thursday, June 4th, 2009

Shortt’s exhibition takes its name from the online classifieds section of Craigslist, where individuals post ads in an attempt to reconnect with other people, typically strangers and potential love interests glimpsed in public spaces. The show will feature a video involving a series of Missed Connections read aloud, combined with empty images of the places they describe, as well as a series of photographs of site-specific interventions inspired by specific ads. For these interventions –in the cake section of the supermarket, the bathroom wall of Starbucks, the 3rd-floor elevator lobby of a garage in the Power and Light District – Shortt rewrites these personal ads in the highly specific locations they took place and then photographs them in situ.

The artist is interested in how our daily interactions are affected and mediated through technology and the Internet. “In today’s culture, we have the option of functioning through the masks of Facebook and Myspace,” says Shortt. “This work asks questions how these virtual and social networks can create a lack in genuine human interaction. By taking formatted ads from online and materially interpreting and representing them in public, I am re-personalizing the ads while increasing the chances of a re-connection.”

For photos of the event, check out our flickr.