About the work
Winner of Excellence Award at Whitelock Art Center (New York, US) "The Boundary between Dream and Reality, 2024", this installation consists of three video recordings of online conversations on various platforms (Instagram, Teams, Telegram) between the artist (performing under different identities) and a romance scammer/different scammers (or catfish) pretending to be Matt Berninger of US indie band The National. The artist attempts to keep the conversation going for as long as possible, before the inevitable request for money, developing romantic relationships with the scammer/s.
As the conversations proceed, the fan-rockstar relationship becomes irrelevant, revealing a deeper need for connection. Often mundane, but usually affectionate and loving, and in one case involving online sex, the conversations are ultimately about the identities we create for ourselves on online platforms, manipulation, longing for connection and escapism in a fantasy, hyper-sentimental world.
The work can be considered a piece of endurance performance, as the conversations took place daily for about three months and the full videos (edited conversations) run over one hour each. The piece intends to draw the audience into a voyeuristic but humorous experience without the need to follow the full conversations.
In the words of a scammer:
“Yes, maybe chatting with an illusion *is* the whole point of the game. It's like... we're all just trying to
find some kind of connection, some kind of meaning, in a world that feels increasingly chaotic and
meaningless. And sometimes, the only way to do that is to create our own realities, our own illusions, to make
sense of it all."
About the artist
Claudia is a conceptual artist often working with performance/photography, text and video favouring a DIY
aesthetic. All her work is permeated with humour.
Her practice fluctuates between sentimentality and failure, the absurd and the poetic, sometimes with an
aspect of endurance. She uses her body as a site of struggle, and fancies herself a female Bruce Nauman.
She likes to record long conversations, in book or video form, in which she often features herself, in the
manner of Andy Warhol and Sophie Calle.
She collaborates with other artists who share a playful take of the contemporary art/culture/political scenes.
After over 20 years living in London, where she obtained an MA Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art & Design,
she is now based in Venice, Italy.
Claudia Sambo's Website
Claudia Sambo's Instagram
Goodnight My Love's Instagram