Make Me Up
Gareth Wyn Owen
The seed of Make Me Up is a self-portrait, but the resulting images in the series are the product of collaborations across continents and communities. Gareth Wyn Owen invited gigs on Fiverr (an online marketplace that connects freelancers with customers) to make him ‘handsome, young and cool’.
The diversity in interpretations and approaches illustrates how notions and representations of youth, beauty and cool are subjective, culturally defined and embedded in the communities in which the sellers are based.
The project also touches on the theme of communities in other ways; how the web and online tools enable the creation of online communities and marketplaces. Make Me Up, the Fiverr platform has enabled photoshop freelancers from India and elsewhere to remake the image Gareth Wyn Owen had produced in Wales.
Biography
Gareth Wyn Owen
Owen was born and raised in Wales, having had periods living in Liverpool, London and Athens before returning to live and work in Wales in 2000. His work has been featured in Art on a Postcard, Espy Photo Award (shortlist), CCQ Magazine, Hant Magazin Für Fotografie and online at Der Greif and Photomonitor.
Owen was formerly a trustee at Third Floor Gallery and was involved with Other Spaces Gallery, a pop-up exhibition platform for public exhibitions, which has exhibited work by Erwin Wurm and Hans Van Der Meer.
Identity and consumerism are recurring themes that appear in Owen's work, drawing on images from magazines and online, and often works with text.