Girl Gang Manchester launch their self-love inspired exhibition See My Selfie’
- Girl Gang Manchester are going from strength to strength with their unique ideas and empowering events
- Girl Gang is a collective of female creatives from many different sectors building amazing inclusive events
- The collective have groups in Sheffield and Leeds as well as Manchester
The award-winning company have previously put the fun in female by running events such as immersive screenings of iconic sassy films Mean Girls and Bridesmaids.
NQ spoke to founder Megan Marie Griffiths about their latest event the See My Selfie exhibition which is running at The Wonder Inn on Shudehill until Tuesday, May 30.
Megan said: ‘The See My Selfie exhibition is the resurrection of a project we ran last May which was an online art project and a social experiment.
“The idea was to explore self-representation, self-acceptance and self-love through the medium of selfies. We wanted to debate whether selfies are women reclaiming their own image, expressing confidence and self-appreciation or whether they are typical narcissism of the 21st century, reinforcing that a women’s looks are more important than her ideas.”
Megan and her team of five women did not have any pre-conceptions about what they would discover during their See My Selfie journey. Every day throughout the month of May 2016, Girl Gang Manchester posted a photo on their Instagram and sent out an email to their mailing list suggesting what their followers should aim their selfie to be like that day.
Provocations they suggested included ‘a selfie trying something new’, ‘a selfie from your best angle’ and ‘a selfie wearing something that makes you feel good.’ The idea was that the Instagrammers would caption their photographs with how they felt when taking the picture.
Girl Gang were overwhelmed with the response they got from the 200 women who took part in the social experiment.
Megan said: “A really diverse range of women took part and the captions were what really took off with women supporting each other in the comments and via the hashtag #see my selfie. It was incredible, there was loads of different viewpoints shared and conclusions drawn about selfies as a visual medium.”
The exhibition is a celebration and a documentation of the project. Curated by Jenny Holt Wright who has done a stellar job, the exhibition is about so much more than selfies. Seeing the pictures captured and reading the comments from participants instils a feeling of empowerment witnessing how the women discovered themselves.
At the event, there is also artwork created on the theme of self, hanging throw-away cameras ready for you to perfect your own selfie, interesting articles to read and Snapchat filter props.
There is Girl Gang merchandise to buy; including t-shirts, badges and CDs (full of girl power anthems – of course).
But, what’s next for Girl Gang Manchester?
“Girl Gang is all about going on your own feminist journey starting with everyday activism. After the two-week exhibition, and the events within it such as Speed-Mating; a real-life Tinder for friends, we’ve got collaborations with Bury Art Museum and Manchester Museum,” says Megan.
Exclusively, Megan revealed to us that in July Girl Gang will be doing a creative club night which has not yet been announced. The event will be sleepover themed, with pillow fights, marshmallows and the works.
In October, another immersive cinema event will be thrown, film to be announced, Megan added: ‘It will Halloween themed and spooky’.
Girl Gang is an amazing opportunity for females of all ages to get to know other like-minded women. Girl Gang is a fluid open collective, if you want to get involved connect them on social media: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and the event link.