Image: Ian Skene

“None is so famous than the example of portraits depicting Queen Victoria I, who would have any portrait that she did not like promptly burnt; right-click remove tag much?” states the pamphlet of The Stalked by Alice Toich, which opened on 21 September at 177 Long Street. The queen’s vanity was one of the reasons Toich decided to use oil paint to connect our modern day Facebook pride to the past. With that choice made, she was able to create flattering portraits of 10 aesthetically pleasing profile pictures of people she tracked down online. There had to be some rules though: none of the subjects were allowed to be her Facebook friends and she wasn’t allowed to have access to further information about them. The next challenge was to get the people who were spied on to attend the exhibition. It was important to Toich that she saw their reaction and the project was an interactive social experiment because, she explains,

art can’t be something that can only live on walls, it has to live in society.

Image: Ian Skene

Six subjects attended the exhibition as a result of a mutual friend’s word-of-mouth recommendation. Overthrown by astonishment, they went through three successive emotions said Toich, “creeped out while trying not to show it, contemplative while trying to wrap their heads around the idea and eventually appreciative for being chosen”.

Just a few days before the exhibition Facebook messages were sent out to the rest, yet the confused stalker victims didn’t take them seriously and were quick to label them spam. Clinton J. Campbell was one of them and thus didn’t attend the exhibition at first. Interestingly, his friends happened to be at the opening and found their buddy’s face spread across a pompous canvas on an exhibition wall. A wave of tweets and texts overwhelmed Campbell and convinced him to come and inquire into The Stalked. “When he arrived the first thing he said was: I’m so sorry I didn’t reply to your message, I didn’t know what it was,” explains Toich.

Image: Ian Skene

The aim was to expose the constructed nature of, as Toich puts it, “an edited life” rather than uncovering pretentiousness. “I Facebook stalk, I change my profiles, I do all of that,” she declares. And she’s not going to stop snooping in on other people’s self-portrayals any time soon, a part two of The Stalked may come to life in the near future. “I might consider choosing one subject and possibly really freaking them out by using all of their profile pictures,” she chuckles cheekily. So in future, think twice about what you put on your Facebook wall because it might just end up on a real one!

Click here to follow her on Twitter.
Click here to view her Tumblr.

Words: Christine Hogg

Images: Ian Skene

Completely infected by his energy and passion for bass, we caught up with Cape Town-based drum ’n bass DJ – Niskerone – to chat about his love for the music and the respect he has for other local DJ’s. Length: 08:00
 
Mark’s beats can really only be appreciated 100% when one sees him play live – which is why we headed to The Assembly and The Waiting Room to witness his d ‘n b up close.

From Cape Town to Jo’burg and London to Barcelona – Niskerone’s live sets move small and large crowds alike. The guy who started the now-famous It Came from the Jungle parties, Mark Stevens has shared the stage with top artists including David Guetta, Rusko, Boys Noize, Steve Aoki and many others.

Niskerone - 5FM Mix for DJ Fresh (December 2011)

Niskerone - DRS Virus Switzerland Studio Mix (2010)

Relevant links:

Underground Exchange Art Exhibition
Indidginus Sofa Surfer Album Launch
International Reggae Day
Zula Bar Relaunch
PH Fat Worldwide Success Tour
London Street Photography Festival 2011 presents Vivian Maier
Win a signed copy of Velocity
Splitscreen: A Love Story