THE GIRLS ON INSTAGRAM: THE GIRLS ON INSTAGRAM

Using the identities created for her Facebook-based Born Nowhere as a starting point, Laís Pontes embarked upon a new social media art project using Instagram. In The Girls on Instagram, the characters continue to evolve beyond their original crowd-sourced identities, as they inhabit real-world spaces and travel to far-off destinations with their companions. Each character’s adventures are documented in photographs staged by Pontes and other participants, and are then posted on Instagram. These images not only bring the characters into the physical world, but they also work to make their companions’ live their fantasies. A staged trip to an exotic beach becomes a reality for both the character and her companion, whose travel is made real through the documentation of her character. As the Born Nowhere girls come into the world via Pontes’ Instagram stream, they also come into their own, each transcending her virtual origins to establish a distinct life in the world.