London art student 'eats' her Instagram photos for her degree show

An art student from a London university has "eaten" her Instagram account as part of her graduation show.

Natalie Wearden, 22, printed 3,000 photos on to tracing paper to destroy her "constructed identity".

"I thought there was something exciting and interesting in ingesting my digital self," said the University of the Arts London student.

This was one part of her degree show, which consists of seven "self-destruction" art installations.

The photos were held in black balloons, which were then popped before Natalie ate them

Her other performances will include cutting her clothes up from her old job and washing off her make-up.

Natalie, who studies at the Wimbledon College of Arts campus, said she saw the performance as a "transition from being an art student to graduating".

"It's about demanding this fleshy and bodily ownership of the abstract digital self I've been posting online ever since I was young.

"I wanted to move to London and study art, to dye my hair blue and work in Camden, and I've achieved all those things, so it's a kind of a cleansing ritual.

"It's about letting go of teenage dreams."

Artist and academic Phoebe Patey-Ferguson read the captions of the photos aloud as Natalie ate them

Natalie's friend and fellow artist and academic Phoebe Patey-Ferguson read out the captions of the Instagram photos as Natalie ate them.

She said there was "something quite humiliating" about exposing her teenage self to Phoebe.

"Maybe I want to be more like her. I admire her, and allowing her to have this control as she reads them was also important.

These are the balloons before they were popped.

"There's something funny in looking back, there was some really poignant moments, like remembering back to my foundation degree performance.

"I made origami and one comment on that photo was 'paper hell is over' and it's funny because I'm eating all this paper now."

Natalie's degree show includes seven performances in total.

Talking about her other performances, Natalie also mentioned how they felt like a "queer rite of passage".

"I was thinking about wanting to take ownership of rites of passages and I don't always feel like I'm allowed access to traditional Christian rituals as a queer person from a Christian upbringing.

"My final ritual is a dance party, and I wanted my own way of marking this important moment of my life, and like a christening or ordination, you would dance after and it's the most pure form of joy and celebration.

"It was something I wanted to make sure I did after this demanding task I've set myself - to finally get to the point where it's over and I've cleansed myself and I can celebrate that."

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