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dannycoeyman:

grindr project. portraits of nearby guys’ profile pictures on grindr, exhibited virtually for a few hours.

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i used grindr to talk with nearby men in west lafayette, where i was doing an art show at Purdue. the men often said they felt stuck, frustrated and bored with gay life there. the local gay bar is closed, and even though a pride fest occurs every year at nearby Lafayette, many of them either dont’ go, or return from it feeling disappointed.

i wanted to do an artwork that honored that community, and at the same time respected their decisions to either be closeted, anonymous, or kept out of a potentially exploitive art project. so i decided to draw their portraits, using their profile pictures as a reference, and have them upload them as their profile picture for a night. it was important to me that the exposition of their portraits happened in a non-physical, non-homophobic space. the virtual gallery of profile photos, the grindr grid, was a perfect place to honor their privacy and yet share the project with a larger audience.

some of the men said no, or simply didn’t upload the photo i drew. those who did participate said it was “cool”, “a fun idea,” “a great art project,” “interesting,” or didn’t respond to me afterward at all. one guy told me he was heckled by a person who said, “so did you fuck danny to get your picture drawn too?” and one non-participant changed his profile asking “what the H are these profile pics that look like they’re all drawn by the same person?!”

for some, i think it was a positive experience. one man went from a blank screen, to a drawing i had made of him, effectively showing his face for the first time on the grid. another man, who attends school at a nearby mormon college and was struggling with his desire to be gay and not go to hell, ended up changing his profile picture as well. he also tells me he finally met a gay guy for the first time, and that it was “amazing.”

i think this piece connected me with the men there, and maybe connected them with each other in a way that was playful, respectful, and opened up possibilities. so often grindr is an alienating, virtual space. subterranean and seedy, or superficial and flimsy, i wanted to stretch the perceived limits of grindr and use it as a space where social media can genuinely connect people in new and interesting ways.

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