Petra Cortright’s core practice is the creation and distribution of digital and physical images using consumer or corporate software. Whether she is manipulating digital files into two-dimensional paintings in Photoshop or uploading videos to online platforms, the Internet is deeply ingrained in Cortright’s work. She became renowned for making self-portrait videos that use her computer’s webcam and default effects tools, which she would upload to YouTube and caption with spam text.

In Pink_Para_1stchoice (2013), Cortright performs a fragmented self-portrait, playing with the relationship between the computer screen and voyeurism, and the Internet’s effect on how we perceive subjectivity. The artist watches herself in the computer screen while singing along to a song we cannot hear. Through the webcam, Cortright presents herself as both subject and object, independent of any male or female gaze. In the context of a public screening, the work becomes a statement about the way women engage with the propagation of images on the Internet, both their own and those intended to represent or appeal to them.

“We are pleased to partner with Times Square Arts to further recontextualize Cortright’s webcam work beyond the YouTube platform as part of the Midnight Moment series.”

—Michael Connor, Artistic Director, Rhizome

Pink_Para_1stchoice is presented in partnership with Rhizome, which celebrates a seminal work by Cortright, VVEBCAM (2007), in Net Art Anthology, Rhizome’s online exhibition charting the history of net art through 100 key artworks. Learn more at anthology.rhizome.org/vvebcam.