Dirty Time Hosts an Exhibition of Potential Dirt Emojis on Governor’s Island

Even though dirt is where our food comes from, is where our bodies get buried when we die, and is literally everywhere we go, it is not represented yet in the emoji universe. Somehow we have emojis for unicorns, pufferfish, poodles and Santa Claus, but not dirt! Dirty Time (Hey There Kapplow and Walker Tufts) is planning to try to correct this oversight and will be submitting a proposal for a dirt emoji to the Unicode foundation in 2024. 

Dirty Signs is an exhibition of international artist responses to the idea of emojifying dirt, featuring works by B a r b a r a Schneider, Daniel S. DeLuca, Ed Woodham, Gustavo Gómez-Mejía, IPRAMENE, Lee Tusman, Liz Nofziger, M Greenwald, Maia Liebeskind, Noelle Salaun, Renée Crowley, Sarah Dahlinger and Vidya Giri in 2D, 3D and 4D formats. Dirty Time will also be collecting visitor suggestions for a potential dirt emoji through a “think tank” installation within the exhibition, and several participatory activities on September 30.

Dirty Signs runs from September 23 - October 1 2023, with a rousing closing event including live performances by Sarah Dahlinger and Ed Woodham for the exhibition on September 30 from 1-5pm.

Featured image is by participating artist Sarah Dahlinger.