The Saatchi gallery have opened its latest exhibition selfie to self-expression, which shows modern selfies to selfies that date back to hundreds of years ago with portraits of important figures. The opening of the exhibit was attended by such stars as Chris Eubank, Lady Colin Campbell and Ainsley Harriott. Not to mention a lot of selfie lovers.
The Saatchi gallery and Huawei have joined forces to host and present these selfies. Huawei makes smartphones, tablets and watches. The idea of the show was to demonstrate how the mobile phone has become an integral part to modern art as it what is often used to take a selfie.
The Chinese electronics firm also wanted to push their presence in the UK.
Nigel Hurst, chief executive officer at the gallery, explained the smartphone selfie as a shift in today’s modern society using technology as a means of creativity.
From Kardashian to world leaders
Of course, there were a fair amount of Kardashian selfies but some of which included Kim Kardashian with Hillary Clinton. Most of Kim’s selfies naturally showed a substantial amount of side boob. President Donald Trump also took a selfie which appeared in the gallery. The photo showed himself in the oval office with Miss Kenya, Miss Syria and Miss Mexico. Trump does not have too many positive things to say about Mexico but he is more than happy to get a selfie with Miss Mexico.
The gallery decided to put Brad Pitt and Angeline Jolie’s selfies next to each other despite their very public divorce only taking place in September of last year. Mr Bean made an appearance as he took a picture of himself back on his show whilst sitting on a park bench.
David Cameron, Denmark's PM Helle Thorning Schmidt and Barack Obama selfie with Michelle famously left out was on display.
Also, Benedict Cumberbatch’s well-known photobombing of U2 at the Oscars in 2014. As well as perhaps one of the most famous selfie’s ever with 3.38 million retweets featuring the likes of Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Lawrence, Channing Tatum, Kevin Spacey, Angelina Jolie, Lupita Nyong'o and Bradley Cooper, at the same Oscars.
The Queen even had a selfie on show at the gallery taking a picture of herself with an iPhone which had a Corgi covered case. Not to mention William and Kate’s selfie which showed Kate giving birth to a baby Prince George. There were also selfies exploding with action. An individual who had taken part of the running of the bulls in Spain, managed to take a selfie of himself with a Bull chasing behind him.
Selfie = self-obsession?
This generation of selfie lovers seem to be more than happy by expressing themselves through this medium. Such warnings as the Greek myth of Narcissus does not seem to have an effect on the public. He caught the reflection of his own image in a river and fell in love with it, he then refused to move and eventually died while staring at himself. These thoughts do not seem to be going through people’s heads when taking a selfie and posting it on social media.
