Exhibition Description

Where is the internet? What is a feed? Why do so many people take so many pictures of their own face?

These are questions that might come up when experiencing Ready to be Acted/Redacted, a show about surfing through the tide of digital stimuli and coming up breathing. Todd Paropacic reads a lot of listicles, so he’s tried a lot of different things. Dive into one of his books, and you’ll see what I mean. 

Todd stopped journaling about his life in 2016 and started only journaling art. Around this time, he also opened his book to anyone who wanted to write/draw/sing/spit something into it. The Book spanned about 3 years and has seen contributions from over 150 people in the Erie area. Not for the faint of heart, The Book reflects the music scene and party culture of the late 2010s and all of the dirt that went with it.

Todd sometimes writes big poems. Exploring the shapes and lines that can only be found under duress, The Hysterical Heretic and Millenial are visual poems that seek to express through not only words, but space. Some Folks will also be present, a four layer series of digital color wash portraits along with Crush, a series of “painted” digital portraits with way more than four layers. It’s all very vaporwave.

But really, why even create any new art if there’s already been so much created? Todd tries to answer that question. Does he succeed? No one really has the authority to answer that, but we’ll go with 

Yes.

Ultimately, Ready to be Acted/Redacted is a reflection of the media ticker that we all carry in our pockets, an analogue(ish) attempt to capture that magical chaos that tops up our feed, the endless scroll that would’ve filled the Library of Alexandria a hundred times over. You might think it’s everywhere and nowhere. That’s because it is.

Artist Bio

Todd Paropacic owns a house with his wife, has a dog and five cats, and doesn’t know how to drive. He is an intractable video game enthusiast and reads a lot of books about mythology, anthropology, and macropolitics. Todd works at the Erie Art Museum.

Oh, as an artist? Well, Todd is a poet, singer-songwriter, and abstract illustrator. He’s published two books and has one on the way called ‘History, Now!’ He sings in a board’n’voice lounge duo called PianoPunk!! and is the solo mind behind the folk-pop outfit, The Feelings Game, formerly known as Jumper Jamboree. He has also dabbled in cringe comedy, running a variety show called Six O’Clock with Todd on Facebook Watch for a couple months in 2020. He studied Theater and Communication Arts at Gannon University for five years, but never graduated.