Nov 17

Nov 17 Camille Soulat

A hymn to the absurdity of internet culture and to life itself, the TikTok compilation What Cannot Be Said Will be Wept, leaves you feeling embarrassed yet compassionate for our social media obsessed generation.

French artist Camille Soulat's What Cannot Be Said Will Be Wept stays satirical for its whole 13 minutes, yet there is something truly unsettling about the order of the clips. Some are ridiculous, some are nostalgic and some are down-right depressing. It feels just as random as going through your real-life feed. And that's what's scary. When it's all compiled together, it makes us realize how numb and unfazed we've all become to sometimes very tragic content. The TikToks quickly alternate from fun partying and pranks to more disturbing imagery, like the two young girls doing one of those Charli d'Amelio dances with a burning house in the background. Behind the Frozen filter, Myspace-like frames and bootleg emojis, the people in these clips don't feel like people anymore. They feel like extras in a weird fake documentary. But even in our day-to-day lives, without Camille's editing, the feeling is the same when we scroll on our phones. Influencers, celebrities and even the common TikToker feels distant from us through a screen. This distance, giving us the courage and the convenience to shame or to praise them freely.

Tiktok isn't like Instagram. Not all users only post the best version of themselves, many actually using it like a digital journal. Whether archiving our self loathe or showcasing our greatest exploits, we're all doing it for the same reason; the pursuit of connection. Through What Cannot Be Said Will Be Wept, Camille explores the rooted link between self hatred and self worship. She displays how one isn't the cure for the other and how they are instead just parts of the journey to self-discovery.

Funny to say this ironic compilation of Tiktoks accompanied by a mix that includes ambient music and an acoustic version of Munch (Feeling U), is so thought-provoking. But it really is. What Cannot Be Said Will Be Wept makes it's point without having to rely on being refined or overworked. Witty and nostalgic, the title says it all. The Sappho quote captures beautifully it's conclusion and our current generation's dilemma; We're all trying to give it a meaning and we all don't want to be forgotten.