ads (2023-2024)

“For a new generation of digital native artists, Web 2.0 is filled with innocence and nostalgia in a similar way that Web 1.0 was for post-internet artists. Learning by their practice, emerging artists are sympathizing with the feeling of loss towards their past lives online. Dutch artist Melle Nieling represents this feeling by recreating common tropes in old fashioned spam advertising. His works devirtualizes pop-up banners, emphasizing promises of evading taxes, age-reversal serums or making billions by clicking on a link. In works like Soul (2023) and Funeral (2023), some of these statements take a spiritual turn, presenting clickbait stories of people selling their soul in exchange of points on their credit score, or ancient cults paying for funeral bills. Recalling the terrain of online flash games websites and pirate websites that Gen Z spent its pre-adolescent years, Nieling stages a time when scams online looked like annoying spam banners. When the internet was still naive, digital traps to collect and sell your data had the look of stretched images, funky fonts, hot singles to meet in your surroundings and shiny sports cars to win with a single click.”

– Arianna Caserta, writer

prints, various sizes

small print with online clickbait advert about stupid fish that make a company $5 billion per year, it urges viewers to watch to free video to find out how
Stupid Fish at Five Years during Fishy Business, photo by Vex Noir
the stupid fish print hangs on a white wall by a bench and a pillar to the right of it, in the scene the print is so small it conveys significance
Stupid Fish at Loods 6 during Post-Fascism, photo by Gert Jan van Rooij
print hanging on lightgrey wall, print resembles an online clickbait advert with a trick for improving your credit score by selling your soul
Soul at Gossamer Fog during Gradient Descent, photo by Samuel Capps
a small print hanging on a worn concrete column, the print is of a clickbait advert that offers a service to get paid for your funeral by allowing an ancient cult to have some private time with the corpse before burial
Funeral at Loods 6 during Post Fascism, photo by Vex Noir
print hanging on a white wall, the print is an online clickbait advert that reads
Cum at Loods 6 during Post Fascism, photo by Vex Noir
close-up of print hanging on white wall, print resembles an online clickbait advert mentioning Gwyneth Paltrow revealing sacrifices for wrinkle problems
Gwyneth at Loods 6 during Post Fascism, photo by Vex Noir
print on a white wall, the print is of clickbait spam emulating an article about a German doctor who discovered an age-reversal secret, two photographs show the presumed doctor before and after with in the corner the CNN logo, add the bottom a link urges readers to
German Doctor at Loods 6 during Post Fascism, photo by Vex Noir
print hanging on a worn concrete column, print is of a clickbait advert advertising a secret trick to live rent-free, the headline reads
Clown at Loods 6 during Post Fascism, photo by Vex Noir
print hanging on a white wall, print shows a clickbait advert prompting viewers to answer
Are all problems in NP also in P? at Loods 6 during Post Fascism, photo by Vex Noir
a print hanging on an old white-painted column, the print is an online clickbait advert for a tax-evasion secret, at the top it says
Tax Man at Loods 6 during Post Fascism, photo by Vex Noir
a print on a white wall, the print is of an advert that claims that a man is growing tomatoes on his face and asks viewers to click whether the image of the man is real or fake, the image shows a man with green and red tomatoes growing on his face
Tomatoes at Loods 6 during Post Fascism, photo by Vex Noir