We all play with how we present to the world, whether it’s hiding our unique traits with whatever everyone else is doing to look “normal” or going far out of our way to look like the most unique person anyone has ever seen and everything in between. Parker Day wants to capture what we believe makes us, us. Her work is inspired by “identity, the formation of our personas, and what lies beneath them.” Today I want to feature her FUN! series portraits, 1,000 photos inscribed on Bitcoin, and a series that lives up to its name. They’re bright, beguiling, and easy to be distracted by, and I think that’s all a part of Day’s plan. My eye is drawn to the props, the makeup, the accessories, the hair, the expression that leaps off of each of these characters, and I’m distracted from the human underneath. Maybe what’s on the outside is armour, guarding something inside, and I’m seeing their innermost thoughts. If we’re all just conscious energy, why do we try so hard to separate ourselves from each other? Whatever our sign, our face, our body, our hair, our clothing, we all end up in the same cosmic primordial soup one day.
I’ve had exceptional drive in my career that’s propelled me to create massive series, like FUN! my collection of 1,000 photos that have been inscribed on Bitcoin. But I would’ve never created that work had Casey Rodarmor, my old friend from high school, not pushed me to shoot it (and then himself went on to develop the Ordinals Protocol which allows for data to be “inscribed” on Bitcoin). There are infinite variables to creation, there is no set recipe. You have to be sensitive to your inner voice and hear its promptings, letting creation unfold in the moment through you.
- Parker Day, MUSEÉ


