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From Scrolling to Seeing: Marisa Stratton’s Slow Look at the Digital Self

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The thought of putting my opinions and thoughts online, exposed for interpretation or misinterpretation, terrifies me. Don’t even ask about posting pictures of myself; the last selfie I shared on my social media feeds was in 2019. The vast unknown of the digital world overwhelms me, whereas speaking live in front of thousands of people sounds like a cakewalk.

This anxiety towards the digital realm—the black hole of social media—is not unique. I am neither the first nor the last to feel it. However, a new sensation emerged when I walked into the third second-floor gallery space at MOCA Arlington and encountered Marisa Stratton’s solo exhibition  You Will Never Be Forgotten.

The gallery space houses a series of delicately crafted objects. Some are small rectangles of wood or paper mounted and floating off the walls; others are kinetic spinning wooden circles, rotating ceaselessly. The surfaces of these objects feature Stratton’s vibrant impasto-style paintings, saturated with color. They depict screenshots from her TikTok’s “For You” page and Instagram feed, capturing a curious mixture of pixelation, Impressionism, and color blocking.

These digital subjects—faces, bodies, and social media icons such as the share button—interact with elements of phone screens, complete with cutouts resembling the cameras on both the front and back of devices. The balance between the digital and painterly elements creates a dialogue that feels both familiar and estranging, as if one is scrolling through memories materialized on physical surfaces.

Marisa Stratton, "You WIll Never Be Forgotten," installation view. Photo by Vivian Marie Doering. Courtesy of MOCA Arlington.
Marisa Stratton, "You WIll Never Be Forgotten," installation view. Photo by Vivian Marie Doering. Courtesy of MOCA Arlington.
Marisa Stratton, "You and I Are Earth ", 2024, 18 x 18 x 2.5 inches, Oil on wood, conveyor belt. Photo by Vivian Marie Doering. Courtesy of MOCA Arlington.

Two standout pieces caught my attention. In “You and I Are Earth” a wooden cylinder endlessly loops like a cat exercise machine, its carpeted interior replaced with phone-screen-sized painted screenshots of Stratton’s social media feeds. One of these screenshots depicts a scene from one of her own videos, documenting the process of creating this very piece. This looping self-reference extends to two phone-sized videos on the back wall, showing the same video with an overlay of audience comments.

Stratton’s integration of material and medium continues beyond the paintings. Thick white spackle, applied with a palette knife, coats the gallery walls, spelling out flourished missives such as “You Will Never Be Forgotten” and “Your Name Here.” The spackle also conceals wires, integrating and drawing attention to the energy required to power both the artworks and the devices they reference. This subtle nod to the infrastructure of technology underscores the omnipresence of the digital in our physical spaces.

What struck me most was how Stratton’s work reframes the act of looking. Her method of painting—transforming fleeting, dopamine-driven content into enduring, tactile objects—slows down time. In her studio, Stratton engages deeply with her subjects, forming a one-sided, parasocial  infatuation that viewers share as we encounter these strangers, frozen yet alive, within the gallery space.

This act of looking—of seeing and connecting—reminded me of Michel Foucault’s concept of the Panopticon, where the act of being watched shapes behavior and perception. Here, Stratton flips this dynamic: the viewer becomes an active participant in observing these captured moments, confronting the layered intimacies and distances inherent in digital connections.

Marisa Stratton,"You Will Never Be Forgotten ", Installation view. Photo by Vivian Marie Doering. Courtesy of MOCA Arlington.
The balance between the digital and painterly elements creates a dialogue that feels both familiar and estranging, as if one is scrolling through memories materialized on physical surfaces.
Liz Faust

The interplay between observer and observed evokes Roland Barthes’ reflection in Camera Lucida: “The photograph of the missing being…will touch me like the delayed rays of a star, a sort of umbilical cord links the body of the photographed thing to my gaze.” Indeed, this quote greets visitors in the exhibition’s opening statement, installed beneath a stark black-and-white painting of an eye—a striking symbol of both surveillance and human connection.

Through this process, Stratton forces us to inhabit our bodies, a sensation often lost in the disembodied act of scrolling on our phones. The paintings of strangers evoke a paradoxical intimacy. I felt as though I had met people, seen them through Stratton’s eyes, and experienced the lingering traces of her own encounters.

All of these works converge into a meditation on memory and permanence that reminded me of humanity’s earliest artistic impulses. Walking through the exhibition felt akin to visiting the caves of Altamira, where ancient humans made marks to declare to the unknown, “We were here.”

Stratton’s work made me confront my own fears of posting online. My hesitancy stems from a fear of insignificance in the endless stream of digital information. Yet, her romanticization of these fleeting digital traces gave me hope. It reminded me that amidst the vastness, all it takes is one person to see, to notice, to connect. Stratton’s work assures us that nothing is truly lost, that even the smallest mark can leave a trace in the infinite expanse of the unknown.

Marisa Stratton: You Will Never Be Forgotten is on view at MOCA Arlington from September 28, 2024 to January 26, 2025.

Main image: Marisa Stratton, "You Will Never Be Forgotten, Self Portrait ," 2024, 3.5 x 6.5 inches; 5 x 4 feet, Oil on wood, spackle. Courtesy of MOCA Arlington

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