No Longer Real

Self Portrait
2016

iphone video

This work began when I started to look at the nature of portraiture. It documents an intimate relationship that I was in. The work is based on a series of selfies we sent each other, and the conversations we were having via text about our everyday life. I had never had a relationship that sent selfies, or relied on such a visual way of communicating.

This work asks “What is contemporary portraiture?”. It questions the way relationships and courtship have been blurred due to our technological age and asks the viewer to consider how we communicate. As a result, it has become a dialectic conversation unfolding through time, a story-telling in motion. The video reveals not only the relationship but also the relationship of sitter/artist in a contemporary way. Using my iPhone, to make the video, aligned with the mode of communication and its unrefined quality, supported the vulnerability I experienced. It was an intense relationship that confronted me at every turn, leaving me bruised and in ashes. It is a raw self-portrait.