There’s this pseudoscientific thought exercise that’s been floating around the digital milieu for quite some time, one that asks the participant to hold a picture of an apple inside of their head. Supposedly, the exercise tests for aphantasia, a blindness inside of the proverbial “mind’s eye.” Since its entrance into digital consciousness, the exercise has been meme-ified and mutilated, sullied and twisted beyond recognition. What do I think of when someone asks me to picture an apple in my head? I think of the meme. I think of a cartoon apple locked inside the blank head of a cartoon person. I try to think of real apples. I worry about whether or not I actually have aphantasia. I think about the discordant patterns of my own thoughts. 

It’s this kind of cacophony, this disorganization of thought inherent to the workings of imperfect brain and encouraged by the dementia of the present-day visual zeitgeist, that serves as the static from which Croatian-born artist Nora Turato’s newest exhibition:  it’s not true!!! stop lying! emerges. On view at Sprüth Magers in Los Angeles until April 27th, 2024, the exhibition appropriates modern textual vernacular and layers it atop and between various mediums. it’s not true!!! stop lying! will feature a performance and premiere a new video work alongside enamel panels that stretch across both floors of the gallery.

The artist, known for her ongoing exploration of text as an interpolative method through which one can translate prescient social anxieties, will add this as a sixth installment of multi-chapter ongoing project pools, anthologies of found text she collects from various sources. it’s not true!!! stop lying! revels in the strangeness of language, and the absurdities that come from its visual presentation.