It’s certainly something to applaud for when people (which is not many) look at the made up distinction between what is considered to be high culture and low culture and just says fuck all that, and goes on to create a succulent smoothie that blends everything together nicely while raising the populist substance of the internet to art. Winnipeg-based artist Erin Jung easily achieves this with her current body of work which concerns itself with how identities are formulated particularly in relation to pop culture. She created an online persona named Megan Irwin. Megan Irwin was born out of her experience of other users who take on alternate identities informed by pop culture. Jung plays Megan, a devoted fan of pop star Zayn Malik who creates detailed renderings of her pop idol obsession and posts them online for some sort of gratification. We got the chance meet up with Jung to chat about Megan, boy bands, fan devotion, and what it’s like to be committing herself and performing as another person on the interweb.
:jung
"A lot of my work may come off as ridiculous and I know that. But that’s the point I’m making. People are then forced to realize their own reaction to my work and also certain aspects of their own behaviour.I don’t think fan art online is any different from art in a gallery or a museum.[Fans] channel all their energy into making these art pieces and they are sort of brushed off as insignificant which is unfair."
Luther Konadu: Did you come up with the name Megan Irwin?
Erin Jung:Yeah!
LK: But it was based off an actual person?
EJ: Yeah, I found this comment on Youtube, which I thought was the most ridiculous thing, so I followed the commenter to their other online profiles which were all linked together, and then made [Megan Irwin] based on this person that I was following.
LK: Do you remember what the comment was?
EJ: It was from a makeup video. It was someone making a grunge makeup video. And this person [the original Megan] went on about how the makeup tutorial was clueless about the grunge lifestyle and had no right making the video, and it clearly sounded like some 12-year-old girl and it just made me laugh so I decided to follow her.
LK: What was the username for that commenter?
EJ:It was something like ‘michaelcliffordissexylol’. So I clicked it and that led me to her Tumblr and then onto her Deviantart account and her fan fiction website. It was hilarious.
LK:How long did it take you to get all her social media accounts?
EJ:No time. I just clicked it and it was all there. They had no images of themselves but they had all this personal information on there. I googled who Michael Clifford was and it made sense of all her fan art.
LK:So you found out her name was Megan?
EJ:Yeah she had up the name “Megan” with no last name so I just used the last name of a guy from another boy band she was in love with. So I made her Megan Irwin.
LK:How separated are you from the Megan character?
EJ:We are pretty opposite. The original Megan and I are entirely opposites but I can see bits of my past in her. That’s why I felt a sort of kinship to her when I was researching her. [The project] started out as sort of a disdainful thing and it turned to me feeling for her. It seemed more like this was the easiest way for her to define herself and talk to other people or relate to other people.
LK:Did she have her age up?
EJ:I think it was 14, but with the current project’s Megan, I decided not make her into a 14-year-old because I can’t think like a 14-year-old, so I made her closer to a 19 or 20-year-old. I was just trying to think that if I were obsessed with Zayn Malik, then this is the kind of thing that I would write. It was a bit easier to act in that way because I’m not an actor and can’t keep up a character for that long. I also made the decision to stick with a pastiche of religious art instead of bouncing all over the place, to get more of a coherent character. I always tried to keep conscious to not be condescending towards these people who were commenting [on the fan art] because I knew they were 12 to 14-year-olds, so I had to be sincere with everything that I was saying.
LK:Why do you think there’s the need for people like Megan to take on personas?
EJ:I think these personas that people take up online are just to get a sense of community or a place to belong. People pick and choose which online communities to be a part of. People on Tumblr aren’t generally on Reddit because it’s a different feel. Especially with these young 12-14 olds, it’s an awkward time, and a lot about you is changing, so being able to be anonymous on the internet and build up your own persona in the way you want to be must be very important to them.
"Everyone likes acceptance and praise so if in real life you are not getting that, but on social media, you’re getting a ton of likes then you tend to alter your personality to match that..."
LK:Are you even more conscious about the way you present yourself on the internet given this project you’ve been working on?
EJ:For sure. I have never really taken to social media that much, but in the way that I do post things I’m very self-aware. I don’t want to present myself as something that I’m not. I’m also more conscious about how other people present themselves online versus how they do in reality.
[Renditions of 'Megan' informed by quotations by Megan and her online personality. Jung describes here renderings of Megan as a way that mimics how we pass judgments on people for how they present themselves, both aesthetically and for their likes and interests. And in a humorous and exaggerated way, working to criticize the use of Capitalist images in defining oneself, as well as to call the viewer’s own tendencies toward judgment into question.]
LK:Why do you think people end up portraying themselves in the way they are not even if they are not trying to be that person?
EJ:I think things like getting likes on platforms like Instagram feeds into the way you present yourself because you will end up trying to live up to that. Everyone likes acceptance and praise so if in real life you are not getting that, but on social media, you’re getting a ton of likes then you tend to alter your personality to match that especially if you are a young person.
LK:There’s a nice cohesive aesthetic to the drawings and illustrations you made for the entire body of work where did that come from?
EJ:I’ve always worked with religious pastiche and iconography in my other work and it something I keep coming back to. I’ve always liked work from the Medieval to Baroque eras. I like how it looks and it communicates the obsession that I was going for with this body of work. I used a lot of gold leaf in the work, which has been historically used as a way of giving something value and holding it up to a high standard, I also arrange them as though it were a shrine.
"It’s so much energy to pretend and make stuff for other people."
LK:You created all these images and then will post them on different social media platform as Megan?
EJ:Yeah, I had a number of different social media accounts as her and depending on the account I would either get really mean comments or more welcoming ones. If I was actually Megan I would be destroyed by some of these comments. I don’t think I can keep them up to date. It’s too stressful.
LK:Why do you think it is stressing you out?
EJ:It’s almost like you have to keep producing something new rapidly to get a reaction and keep your followers. I was making 3 or 4 images per week and I can’t keep that up. I put a lot of time into these things and I don’t know how people actually do it. It’s just out of pure devotion to these people that they are in love with and I don’t have that devotion to justify spending that much energy on it. It’s so much energy to pretend and make stuff for other people.
LK:Were you consciously playing with how we perceive fan art to be especially in a “fine art” context?
EJ:A lot of my work will come off as ridiculous and I know that. But that’s the point I’m making. I don’t really take myself too seriously and the work comes off as stupid but it works out best in my favour. People are then forced to realize their own reaction to my work and also certain aspects of their own behaviour. I don’t think fan art online is any different from art in a gallery or a museum. It all just depends on the arenas they are situated in. There’s this artist Aiyana Udesen, who basically makes a bunch of fan art but as “fine art.” She describes it as the purest expression of someone’s feelings and love for something and I really agree because fans channel all their energy into making these art pieces and they are sort of brushed off as insignificant which is unfair.
LK:What kind of music were you listening to when you were around Megan’s age?
EJ:I was really into screamo and I probably would have thought: One Direction? Ew!” But it’s all essentially all the same thing, just under different names.
LK:The Internet has kind of allowed an overlap of tastes and interests
EJ:Yeah it’s another sign of globalization, things like that aren’t as divided as they used to be, you can be into One Direction and still be considered a punk kid so in a way subcultures are dying and being appropriated into pop culture.
Rendition of Megan's Room
LK:How do you see that as a way in which we form identities and how we shift in between who we want to be and finding yourself?
EJ:I think it makes it more difficult to find yourself now. There are so many different things out there, and everything is of access to you all at once so it becomes even more confusing.
LK: Who in your family do you think has a creative knack for making things?
EJ: I come from a household of scientists and atheists. Everyone's very much a realist, including myself, but I suppose the most creative person in my family is my mother. She has a beautiful flower garden, and has always been very good at figuring out how to make things, so I guess I get it from her.