About
Slow Meme refers to a variation of the Droste Effect in which participants physically paint a recursive image of others standing with their paintings, creating an effect where smaller of said paintings and painter exist within larger ones. In this case, the effect plays out in separate images and message board threads.
Origin
On January 16th, 2019, Redditor Gaddafo posted “My mom painted this and said no one would like it. It’s her 2nd painting” in the /r/pics subreddit. Within 10 days, the post received more than 75,000 points (73% upvoted) and 1,500 comments (shown below, left).
That day, Redditor k__z posted a painting of the woman with the painting. The post received more than 120,000 points (88% upvoted) and 2,200 comments in 10 days (shown below, right).
Spread
Two days later, others continued the trend. On January 18th, 2019, Redditor lilyofthenight posted a painting of both painters hold their paintings. The post received more than 113,000 points (82% upvoted) and 2,300 comments (shown below).
Over the next week, others participated in posting variations of the painting, creating a painting within painting effect (example below, left and center).
That week, Github user nubleh posted a flowchart of the spread of the meme (shown below, right).
Several media outlets covered the meme, including Dazed, who coined the term “slow meme, Quartzy and more.
Various Examples
