AMSTERDAM.- Conceptual design company droog invites visitors to immerse themselves into a mad millennial microcosm by French artist Pauline Perrin (1993).

In her photographs, Perrin takes on multiple roles of photographer, model, makeup artist, fashion stylist, and self-curator. This approach is very suitable to current times in which millennials are expected to be a true chameleon, a self-made everything. She plays around and dresses herself up with furry props and layers of makeup, giving the finishing touch with some post-production using Photoshop. Hereby, she creates an intriguing series in which she explores millennial issues, from forming an identity online, to being knocked out by the millennial epidemic called a burnout and reintegrating the 2.0 life.

The exhibition Opinion Cooler expresses a critical note on the meaning and makeability of identity in times of the digital age. Perrin transforms herself into a range of personas which are at turns amusing and distasteful, and at other times disturbing and affecting. She shows how the media blurs our notion of reality, yet gives space for vulnerability.

Her starting point for these series was an essay she wrote called “Why so heated”, where she concludes that people show extreme behaviour for two reasons. First, the emotion anger keeps you on your toes and engaged on social media. Secondly, Perrin believes one stays in those vicious circles to defend a positive vision of oneself, or of their group. However, an image or a tweet will never be the full truth about someone. Media is a small moment of reality, framed to be an eye-candy becoming a half-lie in the proces. In the gallery @droog you can find several works on display where Perrin presents herself recognisable, yet visibly transformed.

Pauline Perrin is a multi-disciplinary designer who uses fashion as a tool for non-verbal language. She studied at Design Academy Eindhoven. Through her education, she explored trend forecasting, textile design, experimental fashion design, brand identity analysis, and photography. Saturation, contrast, tactility, and volume are recurrent elements in her signature styles. This results in a bold, eye-catching picture that she enhances digitally. She uses this Instagram-friendly and eye-catching outcome to raise awareness on issues that she feels concerned about, like queer visibility, body positivity, and self-expression.