I have been persevering with my "Troll Comments" painting - where I am writing out shit people have written under my social meia posts onto pieces of fabric with the intention of making a dress from them. I am no way near close to having painted all of the comments I have collected recently, although I am being selective and only bothering with the worst ones. I think I wil end up with way more material than I need for the dress and this is without dong a deep-dive into older social media posts where I know plenty more trolls are lurking. I realised after a comment exchange with Dee on my Instagram account - that I am deliberately putting very little creative effort into making these.
I wanted to make it quick and easy to create these, because there hate is not worth my time, skill and attention. I make the "Troll Comment" paintings late in the evening, usually after I have had a few drinks, for an hour at a time - so it is a quick and cathartic process that doesn't take up my headspace. I also enjoy getting messy and covered in paint during the process.
Troll Comments
I think I got distracted here and forgot to write the rest of the sentence - although therir words are so meaningless - it doesn't really make any difference.
Instagram Response
I have been sharing these images on Instagram and receiving a lot of support from my followers which is helping me massively to counteract the hate and I am grateful for people's kindness and love. I think this emphasises the importance of not "suffering in silence" and why I think making this artwork is a helpful and productive activity for me.
Facebook Response
Similarly, my Facebook followers showed massive suppport in response to the paintings. There were a couple of annoyig people writing unhelpful things like "don't feed the trolls" who have clearly just swallowed a slogan without understanding what I a conceptually doing - but mostly people were understanding and supportive.
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