Ed Fornieles's Exhibition Despicable Me 2 Explores Digital Persona and Generation Y Culture

Ed Fornieles's exhibition Despicable Me 2, reviewed in October 2013, centers on the fictional character Britney Rivers, a creation embodying Generation Y narcissism and social media obsession. The show features around 40 artworks, including photographs on shaped lightboxes, such as The First Time depicting an erect penis, and Not Fade Away with pink and blue chewed bubblegum wads. Other pieces include Pony Hoof, a soft toy impaled on a gallows, and sculptures incorporating casts of Stewie Griffin from Family Guy, debased with cigarette butts and glitter. The exhibition avoids digital media except for portraits with digitally erased features, and it presents a chaotic sprawl of objects on carpet rectangles. Fornieles uses Rivers as a virtual muse to reflect ambivalently on network culture, with the press release stating the focus is on jokes, lolz, and likes. The review questions whether Rivers or Fornieles is despicable, highlighting the artist's blurred authorship and the generation's conflicted infantilism.