-CHALLENGE: To paint twenty four facebook friends portraits in twenty four hours-
facebook
My best friend from college changed her profile photo and posted on her status, “ Just took this 2 min's ago. I'm in labor right now, literally!! Here comes my little girl! “ I congratulated her on the phone when she told me the news about her second baby. However, I was not ready to receive this news. It went by so quickly and I didn’t have much chance to share the process and ask her how things are going before this day has come… The most shocking fact was, I found out her big day online, on facebook!!!
No matter how much you care about your friend, the communication between friends become less and less possible when you have so much things going on in your present life. Since moving to Hong Kong, all my friends are not only living so far away, but they are living in different time zones and in different culture. I realized how occupied I was with my own world.
I do not use all the functions in facebook. Half of the time, I have no ideas what to do when I receive things from other people. There are pokes, flowers, wishes, quizes…etc. The list will go on. But because of this instance, I became so curious and wondered what facebook is to me, and what facebook is becoming in our modern life.
So, here comes 24 hours / 24 portraits challenge! I decided to challenge myself with painting 24 portraits of my facebook friends to reconnect with them in different level than usual beyond our time difference. I wanted to take some time to visit them and “facepaint” them through “facebook”. It was just like a marathon… challenge to accomplish, for whatever reasons and towards undefined goal if there is any.
Starting from Oct 2nd 10:00 pm to Oct 3rd 10:00 pm, the time I spent on painting and while I was communicating with friends through facebook, became something very unforgettable.
The first portrait was my friend who left her last comment on my wall. Then the selection of my friends came rather natural. I chose friends who I chat with on facebook chat line during the 24 hours of my challenge. Then I chose some friends who left the comments on my wall during that period. I wanted to respond naturally to my action through facebook. Why do people run marathon? Why do I paint? I don’t know. But my friends were all very supportive with the idea.
Being up all day all night, and the next day… the challenge was also how to stay awake and finish each portrait in good one hour each… However, since I was talking with some of them online while I was working on these painting, I felt some strange energy and high excitement from talking with friends which I haven’t seen for a long time or I would never see during my normal hours. These were my selected photo portrait from their profiles, but they were definitely something more. I received their support while I was painting them. Which was very unexplainable… warm feeling. I explained this to one of my friend, and he said, “Its just like a fasting. Bring people together for doing what is challenging to ones ability.” Many of these friends were my long time friend from high school or college...even my childhood.
I wanted to reconnect with friends that you only see on little square on the corner of your friends list on facebook. I wanted to feel their presence a little bit more. As much as I was against and hesitated to join the facebook in the beginning, I felt that facebook is becoming a part of my communication tool with my friends. Constantly getting new information, adding more friends, uploading some photos, I have no idea where this is going to go in the future. However, I felt little homey feeling, having a few minutes of my day opening my facebook page dropping a line to my long lost friends.
Hopefully I can find some space in Hong Kong and/or have facebook gallery opening to share all my 24 paintings!!
