INTERVIEW:

Simon Tosky: These works put me as a viewer in a trance of sorts, perhaps a fever dream. Did the term dreamscape cross your mind as you made these works?

Margaret Pinto: Actually a similar word was on my mind, I kept thinking of the word psychoscape.

I think the internet has always evoked a landscape in my mind, but it exists in this ethereal way, it's kind of held together by all of our shared thoughts, input and devices. I wanted to emphasize that experience of the digital realm.

Jeffrey Heiman: The influence of the internet is really apparent in what you're doing. What I am interested in is are you making it about your experience or about the collective experience?

Margaret Pinto: I thought of these works as site specific to the internet, so the influence is definitely strong!

And I was definitely thinking about the collective while making the gifs, for two of them, the pink slime and the oysters, I used the google image search feature to source many different photos similar in content. So those pieces are particularly relevant to this topic, since all of that content is sourced from dozens of people uploading content to the web

Simon Tosky: It's interesting how there's a connection to the internet and nature at the same time. Can you talk about how the shedding process is involved?

Margaret Pinto: I think that the internet reflects the natural world in a lot of ways. It is similarly chaotic, with seemingly infinite elements all bouncing off each other, evolving and constantly growing and changing. So I think the imagery of the mantis shedding speaks to that constant cycle of evolution-  it's also pretty disturbing I think, seeing a body erupt from pieces of itself that were once integrated

My friend has been raising mantis in the pandemic (her hands are in the photo holding the green mantis) they were telling me that every time they shed their skin, they evolve like Pokemon, they grow new little horns or their bodies change in different ways.

Jeffrey Heiman: So then what came first, the images of the mantis or the gifs? Did you make the mantis gif and then it sparked your curiosity with making other gifs about the internet leading to the psychoscapes?

Margaret Pinto: The images came first- this was a part of where the title for this show came from. I've been carrying around a smartphone for ages, and whenever I come across something visually interesting, I compulsively take a picture or a video of it. It's a lot like harvesting for berries or grubs in the wild. I decided to shift through them and look for similarities. And then I supplemented with images from the web.

Simon Tosky: The phrase "How do we relate to the body?" comes up a lot when I look at these pieces. How did using your own body in the work change your process?

Margaret Pinto: I was contemplating the body in all of these pieces- i think the internet and specifically social media creates such a spotlight on our bodies and ourselves. We are constantly attempting to frame and reframe how we represent ourselves

I also think of my smartphone as an extension of my body, it's essentially with me at all times, I use it as an extension of my senses, my intelligence and my memory.

In the long scroll of gifs including my body I used my phone to take images of my body from many angles and then pieced them together. I was thinking about the lack of complexity in most images we see, and the difficulties  of piecing together one's perception of oneself.

Simon Tosky: This show is kind of like an intimate and personal alternate reality of an instagram feed -

Margaret Pinto: Yes exactly, that was actually the starting point for the show. I noticed how similar the gallery's format was to Instagram.

I think most people use or are addicted to social media, so we all have a muscle memory for scrolling and certain expectations of what type of content we will see. I wanted to see what would happen if I subverted those expectations with imagery that is confusing, disorienting and in some cases disturbing/disgusting

Simon Tosky: There's a sense of measuring - how did these photos of your shadows silhouette come into the picture?

Margaret Pinto: So the shadow pictures were something that had been accumulating on my phone over the years. Because I take so many photos at times I would intentionally include my shadow, and other times my shadow would unintentionally enter the frame. 

Those photos ended up being perfect for this show I think because they emphasized an awareness of the self, that is pervasive and can even be ominous. I think when you talk about this sense of measuring, it comes from the kind of comparison we do of ourselves to the world around us, it's the way that we understand the shape of ourselves.