Sage Kessler

Vulnerable, tedious, and foreboding; my artwork visually presents themes that are difficult to explain. I make room for taboo topics, working to destigmatize the stereotype of feminine irrationality, turning it into a reflection of strength and authenticity. I am particularly interested in investigating the complexities of being a young woman amid the growing influence of dating app culture and social media. In my pieces I create an artificial world that reflects women through the male gaze in digital spaces. Remembering intimate moments through digital platforms, old photos and calls, text messages and shared playlists, have embedded the experience of technology with the creation of memory.

We curate the experience of ourselves and each other through a digital lens. The records of relationships stored online feel like concrete reality, until things fall apart. Everything that feels like a tangible fact becomes a potential distortion. Do we know what is real and what is an illusion? Who are we to ourselves and to each other? My work captures this tension through surreal and unexpected spaces. Tight lines and digitally inspired backgrounds/patterns combined with realistic figures and objects to portray a fabricated reality. Emotional records of womanhood–distorted, curated, achingly real–are trapped in the uncomfortable space where memories glitch and time loops infinitely.