Kristen Fissell

 THIS IS AN ORANGE

one real orange, fishing line, nylons, toy balls, yo-yo, paint, reflective mirrors sheets

THIS IS AN ORANGE is a direct investigation of how we digest the news and make sense of facts about events. Whether on news media or through social media, to come to personal conclusions we need to sift through a barrage of information that claim repeatedly, loudly, and confidently “THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED”…even if it isn’t true. I am fascinated by the illusory truth effect which is a is the tendency to believe false information to be correct after repeated exposure. Politicians, news outlets, and purveyors of disinformation know this, which is why you will see incorrect or false narratives repeated over and over, slowly becoming something we feel to be true, even though they are not.

Like the illusory truth effect, I have repeated a message using oranges. This piece contains many objects that are the same size and shape as an orange, claiming to be an orange, but there is only one real orange among them. I wanted the viewer to question how it is they arrive at “truth”, how they figure out what is real to them, and what that process contains.