I used to think I wanted to be a boy growing up. I chose male avatars when playing videogames and wore my hair short. Now I don’t know what I am or want to be anymore. Though the societal debate around gender inclusivity has started opening up, I still feel pressured to pick a descriptive label. I struggle identifying with both binary and non-binary gender labels, and not knowing what I am feels like a burden, though it shouldn’t. Instead of picking pronouns to identify with I choose to look for my reflection elsewhere. The internet is one of such places, its fluid and hybrid digital environment full of unknown possibilities lurking invisibly in the background, waiting to be discovered.
My fascination for the materiality of the digital network and the underlying relationship between people and images form the conceptual basis of my mixed-media video-installation ‘I carry all the names I’m given’. The online sphere plays an increasingly important role in shaping our (gender) identities. We are often exposed to digital culture at a young age, and much of our adolescent life develops on the internet. I grew up with the internet, surrounded by smartphones and computers, the language spoken on the web is like a second mother tongue for me and my generation. The internet can thus be considered a digital extension of our reality.
The online spaces embedded within the internet’s network are flexible and allow for uncertainty and unrecognizability. They are spaces for the the non-defined or unidentifiable that don’t seem to belong anywhere else. It’s spaces like these that I’m attracted to. By combining elements of sculpture, video and animation, I investigate the role of contemporary digital image culture and the virtual space in our exploration and understanding of gender identity.
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Artist Statement
Noor Boiten (1999, Rotterdam) is a visual artist working with mixed-media video-installations whose practice involves topics like gender, digital culture and consumerism.
