patrick totally @bigrickystyle.bsky.social

1 month ago

Press release for "Sharethread" by @zubrovich.bsky.social. "Sharethread" opens August 16th, 5-9pm at whathouse.

Press release for the art show "Sharethread" by Patrick Totally, written by Mark Zubrovich. The show opens August 16th at whathouse, a new art space in Pittsburgh, 177 43rd Street. The body text is to long to fit in the alt text, but the first two paragraphs read as follows:

"The first screamer I saw on the internet predates streaming video: Relaxing Car Drive. A friend says to watch this and look closely, because there is a ghost in it! A car cruises down a serene country road, calming music playing in the background. I’m lulled into the false sense of security provided by professional film-making, advertisement semiotics, and the trust of the person showing me the video. I’m not expecting a ghoulish figure to pop up into frame and scream bloody murder in my face, but that’s exactly what happens. I cry, I throw pillows at everyone in the room.

The first gore I saw on the internet was on YouTube, around 2006. Modeled in the aesthetic of Newgrounds flash animation, it was framed as an anti drunk driving PSA. It told the story of a Hispanic man (most certainly a white teenager doing a Carlos Mencia impression) who gets sloshed at a party and decides to drive home. A crude stick figure getting into a car. An audio clip plays, a sample from some hiphop song like, “Viewer discretion advised there's some disturbing material ahead!” The video pumps the music’s volume and jumpcuts to a closeup of a mangled corpse. A face bruised blue and black, broken into pieces and leaking brain onto the tarmac. I scream, I shield my eyes, I close the internet for the day."

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