Putin meme inspires art show in Dundee

They are an ubiquitous part of social media conversations, sometimes surreal and often humorous.

Now internet memes – the online process of doctoring pictures to twist their original message – has inspired a new art exhibition, which opened this week in Dundee.

Organised by the Pilproject collective, the event at the Centrespace Gallery explores how memes can often have a political agenda.

The group took inspiration from the “Putin Rides” online phenomenon, when thousands of Russians gleefully altered an official picture of Vladimir Putin riding on horseback, causing a political storm in Russia.

The group travelled to Russia to research its internal politics and the country’s relationship with the internet.

Pilproject member Alejandro Ball, a PHD student at the University of Dundee, said: “This exhibition examines the effects of control and surveillance, and the dystopia of internet freedom.

“The Putin Rides meme pushed us to investigate the politics of Russia and the internet further, and how the implementation of the country’s recent internet content law had affected artists operating on the net.”

The exhibition is open until Saturday from 12-4.30pm.

The Centrespace Gallery is part of Duncan of Jordanstone art school’s visual research centre.