It’s sad to say that banality has become the cornerstone of Instagram. With people constantly posting pictures of the beautiful sunset they saw that night or pictures of their day at the beach, we can’t help but wonder — can Instagram be used for more? The world needs a revolution; the world needs an artist to swim against the current of unoriginal posts. I believe we have finally found that artist in adult.bb, an Instagram creator whose content can only be described as a religious experience. The content of adult b.b, created by Scituate High School senior Anna Conroy, may seem palatable to the naked eye, but it is, in fact, deeply subversive through the fierceness of its cultural undertones.

The career of adult.bb began with experimentation through the medium of portraits. Honing her collage-based skills early on by utilizing self-portraits, adult.bb soon began expanding to cultural icons. I believe adult.bb truly hit her stride with her piece centered around Prince Philip. With this piece, she established the lush monochromatic theme that would carry on throughout the rest of her ongoing career, as well as her trademark aura of intentional disarray. The piece includes textual imagery, a single glittering tear dripping from the eye of Philip, and faded images of dollar bills and Greek statues in the foreground. 

When taking in this work as a whole, the purpose of the Philip piece becomes clear–to highlight the inner loneliness brewing amongst the upper class as they perish at the hands of their vast riches. This is a bold statement to make in an early piece of art to be sure, but adult.bb has proved she doesn’t cower in the face a vindictive audience.

adult.bb expanded beyond Prince Philip to include subjects such as Joe Biden, Kris Jenner, and Anderson Cooper. But my very favorite piece has to be the Adam Driver piece, titled “Is He Hot or Is He Scary?” This piece marks a stark diversion from her pink color palette, as she uses a deep blue instead. Driver is portrayed at his emotional extremes; the observer can practically feel the anger bubbling at the surface of the artwork. The word “Crybaby” is pasted atop a cluster of Driver’s expressive visages, along with harsh imagery of royalty and gun violence. The melding of themes serves to highlight the distorted sense of reality that can come from fame and fortune, a message palpable in the eyes of Adam Driver. Driver practically asks the observer, “Am I Hot or Am I Scary?” Well, that’s for the observer to decide.  

It is impossible for anyone to dislike the work of adult.bb, which is what makes her style of art so paradoxically challenging. The art will appeal to everyone, and the underlying suggestions in each piece will enrapture everyone. Each individual piece serves its own theme, but when looking at all her work as a whole, adult.bb’s intention is clear–to shake the world to its core.