It’s not like those things come from teenagers, those things come from adults. Teenagers are just reflecting them back.

 

AR: What do you think about the whiteness of a space like Tumblr?  Is that just a repetition of mainstream understanding of beauty or does it speaks to who’s on Tumblr maintaining these pages?

 

KD: Well, it’s not all white girls.  As someone who’s spent a lot of time in the depths of Tumblr, I can confirm that.  At the same time, I think you’re recognizing a real tendency. I’m sure it’s a combination of the predominant images that we see in our culture, where whiteness is the ultimate. The one thing I’m worried about with that critique is it becomes a little bit sexist, where it’s like “white girls shouldn’t have a voice,” or “white girls can’t make work around being white girls.” I think that’s unhelpful.

 

AR: Your work is often called experimental, but a term like that often obscures the particular ways in which a work is experimental. How do you think the experimental nature of your work has changed?

 

KD: One way I look at it with The Ravenous Audience is that I was watching a screen and with E! I was sucked into the TV screen. With #HelloSelfie I’m being spit out of the screen onto the street.

 

AR: I like that a lot. How does collection play into your work?

 

KD: It’s a very natural impulse for me to work in that way. I’ve had a lot of people say your work is so anthropological, but everything I interact with is of the moment, so that’s not really accurate. I’m always aware of myself and my presence. I’m always trying to embody the material I encounter. It’s the only honest way to do it. There’s no remove. I never want to give the impression that I’m above something. We’re living in a time where there’s so much stuff. There isn’t just one Real Housewives show, there are seven. When I focused my attention