Xanthe Dobbie
Real_Things (2021)

Xanthe Dobbie mixes feminist and queer theory with pop cultural references. Their work responds to a contemporary moment in which the Internet functions as a spiritual guru and where identities and relationships are formed virtually as much as “away from the keyboard”.

Real_Things has been commissioned by MUNCH especially for CADS, and is conceived as a typical online quiz where your response to arbitrary questions decides your personality type. The data gathered by the companies offering the quiz is then used for targeted advertising. Real_Things invokes our seeming quest for answers and a sense of belonging by providing an alternative that leaves your data unmined but instead offers a downloadable artwork. Querying your choice of musician, artwork or sense of spirituality Real_Things determines whether you are a glitch, a goddess or other iconic online phenomena.

 Xanthe (b. 1992) is an Australian artist, who lives and works on unceded Bundjalung land.

Xanthe acknowledges the traditional owners of the land on which this work was made, the Widjabul/Wyabul people of the Bundjalung Nation and the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. They pay respect to elders, past, present, and emerging.  Sovereignty was never ceded. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.

This artwork is part of the online exhibition CADS #3: Queer desires (20 May - 18 June 2021)