Find Me: Self-portraiture as a tool
(2022)
author(s): Silvia Diveky
published in: Research Catalogue
What kind of artistic research practices would enable us to reflect and respond effectively to the urgencies of our moment?
In my artistic research, I test my own limits as a documentary film-maker. Very often I feel unqualified to be the one to write about the documentary practices and so rather than write, I shoot. By creating a documentary self-portrat, I test the limits of my own capabilities to respond to the situations around me, to capture the essence of my own being as a human. I do not strive to capture "myself" but rather to explore the process itself. We tend to forget that although we consider ourselves "artists", we very often feel insecure, and this insecurity limits us from reaching beyond the safe margins of our abilities. But it is never to late to go further, never too early to find a new way of expression.
Self-portraiture: on photography’s reflexive surface
(2016)
author(s): Elisavet Kalpaxi
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
This exposition deals with narcissism, narrativity, self-portraiture, and photography. It illustrates a practice-based research project instigated in 2007 that aims to decode and recover narcissism as a useful sense-making scenario or system. This approach can help make sense of photography and self-portraiture in the present, and can be employed in the development of visual strategies in photographic self-portraiture.
Here I present the practical work that was produced and the theory that influenced my practice: namely, the revaluation of the relationship between self-portraiture and narcissism, and ideas from the semiotics of photography and narrative theory. The three main sections of the exposition illustrate the chronological development of my work, and each section is divided into two parts.
The first part of each section presents the practical work, whereas the second part illustrates the theoretical aspect of this project, which stems from a wish to reflect on my own art practice and increase my understanding of self-portraiture, while also interrogating narrative codes and devices in photography, such as the double, mise en abyme, and mirroring structures, and their association with narcissism. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory, semiotics, and narratology, I argue that narcissism in self-portraiture can simultaneously represent an imaginary withdrawal of the artist, a structure within the work, and a vehicle for narrativity. By eluding structured language systems, narcissism provides a vocabulary for narrativising procedures, as well as meeting the artist’s/viewer’s modes of engagement.
These ideas informed the practical component of the research project and provided the basis for a number of visual strategies employed in the development of the photographic self-portraits that are presented in the second part of each section. In these sections, I also explain the different strategies adopted in producing my images: the role of codes, narrative devices, layering, and reframing for understanding the density of an image and its inherent narcissism. In the process I propose that narcissism should receive a much more central role in the consideration of images and the way they communicate with a contemporary audience.
Reflected Self-Portraits
(last edited: 2025)
author(s): Andrew Bracey
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
"Reflected Self-Portraits" is a body of practice-research that explores the intersection of subjectivity, appropriation, and the materiality of artworks through a series of self-portraits taken using the reflective surfaces of other artists' works. The project, ongoing since 2007, currently consists of an archive of 778 images. These photographs serve as both a record of the artist’s evolving self and a fragmented representation of another artist's work, operating with a parasitic intent that utilizes a specific material quality without engaging in interpretative dialogue. The work diverges from traditional painting practices and aligns itself with appropriation art, emphasizing "making-looking" through peripheral observation of overlooked elements within artworks. The images reflect a unique engagement with artworks, embodying a speculative approach that questions the boundaries between observer and observed. This interaction challenges the conventional hierarchy of artistic agency, positioning the artist's reflection as a secondary yet integral aspect of the host artwork. A three-part video installation at General Practice, Lincoln, featured a scrolling slideshow of these self-portraits, paired with a text-based screen acknowledging the original artists and a video of a mirror being shattered, symbolizing the ephemeral nature of self-representation. By documenting fleeting interactions with art, "Reflected Self-Portraits" questions the role of subjectivity and authorship in contemporary practice, suggesting a commensal rather than fully parasitic relationship with the original artworks. The project integrates theories from Susan Sontag and Hito Steyerl, contemplating the digital and physical dissemination of images and the shifting aura of artworks. As the photographs transcend traditional gallery spaces into digital realms, the work ultimately redefines the concept of the self-portrait, transforming it into a complex interplay between the self, the artwork, and the ever-expanding digital space.
Self-ish Portraits
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Andrew Bracey
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
My position is that knowledge about an artist and their work can be uncovered through close looking at their work and that some of this knowledge can be held and transferred tacitly to viewers (that are also artists). This knowledge can be articulated through practice, in this case in the making and subsequent close looking and reflection of the Selfish Portrait paintings. Because the knowledge is tacit, as opposed to propositional, the knowledge may be sensed, felt or difficult to articulate in words. Practice is the most appropriate vehicle to test whether this knowledge can shift from what Alexis Shotwell’s has articulated as ‘nonpropositional knowledge’ to ‘potentially propositional knowledge’.
In Selfish Portraits I search for self-portraits by a range of dead artists in terms of geography, gender, race, ‘status’, time of working, style, etc. This necessitates (re)searching beyond my current knowledge base using gallery visits, internet searches and books. The selected self portrait(s) are subjected to a period of ‘looking attentively’ in order to visual interrelate and learn about the painting, and by extension the artist. The main focus is allowing the self portraits to ‘talk to me’ following the theoretical stance of the ‘active’ painting or picture, that knowledge is held in the painting itself and cannot always be found in (written) documentation.
i feel seen #worktitle
(last edited: 2022)
author(s): Morgane Clément-Gagnon
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Inspirée par mon passé académique en philosophie, ma pratique se place à l’intersection de la photographie, de l’installation, et de la performance, avec un intérêt spécifique pour le kitsch, la création de mises en scène, et les références à la culture populaire occidentale dominée par l’image et les écrans.
What kind of artistic research practices would enable us to reflect and respond effectively to the urgencies of our moment? In my artistic research, I test my own limits as a documentary film-maker. Very often I feel unqualified to be the one to write about the documentary practices and so rather than write, I shoot. By creating a documentary self-portrat, I test the limits of my own capabilities to respond to the situations around me, to capture the essence of my own being as a human. I do not strive to capture "myself" but rather to explore the process itself. We tend to forget that although we consider ourselves "artists", we very often feel insecure, and this insecurity limits us from reaching beyond the safe margins of our abilities. But it is never to late to go further, never too early to find a new way of expression.open exposition comments (0)
Inspirée par mon passé académique en philosophie, ma pratique se place à l’intersection de la photographie, de l’installation, et de la performance, avec un intérêt spécifique pour le kitsch, la création de mises en scène, et les références à la culture populaire occidentale dominée par l’image et les écrans.open exposition comments (0)