Truth or TRUTH™
johannesburg, 2023TRUTH OR TRUTH™ is an experimental installation that finds inspiration in the classic game of strategic peacocking – ‘Truth or Dare’ (or ‘Truth, Dare, Command’) – in which players take turns choosing whether to answer a question, take on a dare, or submit to a command. In TRUTH OR TRUTH™, the viewer is invited to play a game made popular by that New York Times viral essay: 36 Questions to Make Anyone Fall In Love With You.
TRUTH OR TRUTH™ No. 7
What’s a love language you may crave but struggle to ask for?
Ink on German paper
148 x 210mm
TRUTH OR TRUTH™ No. 15
What’s one of the most significant lessons past relationships have taught you?
Ink on German paper
148 x 210mm
Produced during a 3-month residency with Bubblegum Gallery, the work takes the form of 32 handwritten, mixed media pieces arranged on a grid of 16 double-sided perspex-framed double-sided works and framed as the first installation of GAMES NIGHT, which concluded the residency.
In this version of the game, however, the viewer must respond to 16 multiple-choice questions given to them in a questionnaire by ‘flipping’ each double-sided work to select a response that most closely resonates with them.
Stressing the lines between ‘authentic self’ and ‘desirable self’, each piece will ask a common underlying question:
“Which part of yourself do you wish to be perceived in this moment?”
TRUTH OR TRUTH™ No. 6
If you lived life by one rule, what would it be?
Ink on German paper
148 x 210mm
TRUTH OR TRUTH™ No. 16
Describe one way in which you’re a joy to love
Ink on German paper
148 x 210mm
With questions yielding responses, or truths, ranging from the benign to the cryptic; the rhetorical to reflective; and the vulnerable to the more vulnerable – the installation simulates the scripts re-enacted in contemporary dating culture: the inevitable mental and emotional dance required to get to know someone new.
Sometimes-sweet, sometimes-manipulative, most times in service of systems of power that benefit some more than others, TRUTH OR TRUTH™ simply holds a mirror up to this social two-stepping.
TRUTH OR TRUTH™ No. 1
What would you describe your ideal day?
Ink on German paper
148 x 210mm
TRUTH OR TRUTH™ No. 4
How would you describe your typical approach to anything in life?
Ink on German paper
148 x 210mm
Here, the red side represents TRUTH – a more vulnerable, unfiltered one – while the blue side represents TRUTH™ – one that is perhaps less vulnerable, more socially appropriate, or conscious of one’s personal-brand.
In this way, the game stresses that there need not be a right or wrong answer when it comes to answering questions about ourselves – no games of explicit, or intentional deception.
Rather, for many deeply personal reasons, there is simply a level of vulnerability we’re willing to show to another at any given point.
TRUTH OR TRUTH™ No. 9
How would you decipher mixed signals (even when you’re sending them)?
Ink on German paper
148 x 210mm
TRUTH OR TRUTH™ No. 2
Complete the sentence: “Yeah sex is cool, but…”
Ink on German paper
148 x 210mm
TRUTH OR TRUTH™ No. 5
What have you underestimated the importance of lately?
Ink on German paper
148 x 210mm
TRUTH OR TRUTH™ No. 8
Describe one way in which you are difficult to love.
Ink on German paper
148 x 210mm
In terms of the detail of each piece, the background text is a single line of handwritten text repeated over lines 1mm thick, creating a mantra of sorts. With no two mantras the same, they serve as context to the capitalised text, offering the viewer greater insight into each TRUTH / TRUTH™ – if they’re willing to read it.
When worked through alongside the TRUTH OR TRUTH™ questionnaire, each piece becomes a ‘full answer’ corresponding to its question: both that which is said out loud – in bold – and that which might only be whispered, implied, suggested or suppressed – as subtext.
TRUTH OR TRUTH™ No. 3
How might you describe you and your person’s similarities?
Ink on German paper
148 x 210mm
TRUTH OR TRUTH™ No. 7
What idea lies at the foundation of romantic love for you?
Ink on German paper
148 x 210mm
TRUTH OR TRUTH™ No. 13
What’s one of the scariest things a partner has said to you?
Ink on German paper
148 x 210mm
TRUTH OR TRUTH™ No. 10 / Ode To Jenny Holzer
If you could tell your younger self anything about love, what would it be?
Ink on German paper
148 x 210mm
By the end of the game, having worked and flipped through 16 questions and their answers, no two viewers should have the same matrix of red and blue works reflected back to them – a visual reminder that we are each uniquely complex, that the idea of honesty is far more nuanced than most social scripts allow us to embody.
TRUTH OR TRUTH™ No. 15
What’s one of the pettiest lessons past relationships have taught you?
Ink on German paper
148 x 210mm
TRUTH OR TRUTH™ No. 12
What would you tell yourself to avoid repeating familiar setbacks?
Ink on German paper
148 x 210mm