Brooke Holloway. It's All Easy

About

Drawing from social media and the Internet, Holloway produces narratives that explore a world where the line between advertisement and life has disappeared. With an emphasis on repetition and the multiple, her use of performance bridges a variety of media including video, photography, and printmaking.

In her work, Holloway occupies preset roles found in digital culture as a point from which to unwrap the fallouts of the American Dream.

It’s All Easy rephrases scenes related to self-care as commonly portrayed on social media platforms. Throughout the four-channel video installation, a hyperbolic female character occupies each of the lifestyle scenarios wherein she lays out the blueprint for how to create a revolution. The monologue, adapted from WikiHow –a DIY website with the stated mission to “help everyone on the planet to learn to do anything”– touches on the role of self-help culture in the commodification of the individual’s empowerment. The character’s repetitive actions are performed as an automaton trapped in a loop devoid of meaning while simultaneously engaging in a genuine call to action. Accompanying each video channel is a mounted digital print depicting an object removed from the scene. While these images appear to be appropriated from stock photography, each was constructed by the artist out of elements utilized in the performances. Hovering between the hyper-specific and the generic, one is left to confront the undecidable nature of Holloway’s images and characters.