Morgane Ely’s practice mines the frenetic imagery of contemporary internet culture, transforming fleeting digital moments into enduring, tactile works of art. Her source material - gleaned from films, social networks and viral media - often features feminine figures caught in emotional or vulnerable states. Ely reclaims these ephemeral images,
elevating them into feminist icons while celebrating imperfection, awkwardness, and the emotional intensity of human experience.
Trained in the meticulous techniques of Japanese printmaking and woodcutting in Tokyo, Ely repurposes this rigorous, codified medium to subvert expectations. Traditionally intended for multiple prints and discarded after production, her carved plywood blocks become singular objects, displayed as finished works. This inversion of
temporality turns instant, consumable images into enduring artefacts, as pixels are transformed into artisanal precision. The painstaking process - hours of engraving a fraction-of-a-second internet moment - creates a deliberate tension between ephemeral content and enduring craft.
Through this lens, Ely’s work functions as a bold shrine to meme culture and popular imagery, elevating ordinary, often discarded moments into sacred relics. Viral or celebrity girls in moments of existential vulnerability are rendered with striking fidelity, turning transient online snapshots into icons of resilience and humour. Ely honours imperfection, embracing the raw, emotional and awkward as a form of empowerment. Her work challenges conventions of female portraiture, fusing craft with contemporary culture to transform the fleeting, viral and disposable into enduring, tactile objects that insist on reflection, empathy and recognition. ...
