Who are you? --- Mouchette

http://www.mouchette.org/index.html

A.   Description of the Work

Actually, I think this work is quite complicated and it is quite hard for me to describe the whole work. Thus, I would only introduce the first page of the work. When I first access the website, the background of the website is a close-up of a flower which is randomly selected in each time. There are some images of fly and ant which are ‘walking’ on the screen. A profile picture is put on the top left hand side of the screen. It changes sometimes as well. I saw three different profile pictures in total. There is a description of the artist next to the profile picture. There is a menu at the bottom of the website. The webpage is very complicated because a lot of pages are linked together without any connection. In general, most of the images in the website are quite disgusting and erotic.

B.   The work is controversial because…

The artist claims that she is a 13 years old female artist. However, it is hard to realize is it her real identity since the website is too complicated for a 13 years old teenager. This work is thus controversial for the issue of online identity. This work implies the ‘fake’ identity in the virtual world. Everyone can construct their own identity.

Moreover, because the images and the feeling of the whole website are quite erotic, when this kind of feeling associates to the ’13-year-old’ girl, then it may connote the issue of child sexuality.

Bibliography:

Tribe, Mark; Jana, Reena (2007). "Mouchette". New Media Art. Germany: Taschen. pp. 66–67.