LOVE ISLAND

Bridgette McNab’s Love Island is the Melbourne based artist’s fourth solo show. With a practice that has continued to orbit the realms of artifice and illusion, it comes as no surprise that she is drawn to the fantasy world of reality TV. Heavily regarded as ‘bad’ TV, the genre is often understood as lacking seriousness. It pervades discussions that are in fact very serious modern day anxieties such as surveillance, performance and concerns about the idea of what is real.

Visually, the set of the Love Island house could be likened to that of a modern day Mondrian painting – sharp architectural lines paired with the artificial bright colours of astro turf and neon strip lighting form the set for these post millennial contestants. Within this series McNab states that she wanted to create portraits that capture the spirit of the age. The hidden cameras, extreme close ups and obscure camera angles found within the show amplify the voyeuristic nature of the genre. In many ways these programs are a mirror to the times we inhabit; we are always watching others or being watched and watching is rarely neutral but involves judgements on behaviour, taste and responsibility.

Despite the shows trivial, pop culture reputation, McNab likens it to an episode of Black Mirror or a dystopian Sci Fi movie - highly aware of its function as a form of surveillance. Despite frivolous first impressions, it is just one example of a growing anxiety about the pervasiveness and normalisation of surveillance techniques in everyday life.  With the rise of social media platforms such as Instagram, snap chat and Tik Tok we have become deeply accustomed to the idea of performance.  From celebrities, our families, friends and strangers online, we hunger for the variety and flavour of the ‘real’ within our entertainment.

Viewer critiques and speculation on the authenticity of what they are watching is perhaps one of the biggest draw cards to the program. Despite its deceptive artificiality, McNab has managed to excavate very ‘real’ and intimate moments of introspection, despair, apathy and trepidation in a high gloss finish. By taking advantage of its slowness as a medium, painting can constitute a means of thinking about and reading these images - a paramount activity in modern life.