STATEMENT
Primarily my artwork is
self-portraiture, but not in the traditional sense.
In the work I create a
photographic copy of myself and place it in the real world instead of me.
She becomes a substitute
and my visual representative.
My photographs, videos
and installations form an enquiry into the act of looking and being looked at.
Referring to psychoanalysis, phenomenology and feminism I examine my own
experience of becoming an object of sight and also consider the experience the
viewer has when looking at me as a female, and a photographic object. Voyeurism
and exhibitionism intertwine in these purposefully provocative scenes.
By producing artwork
that establishes me as an object it could be argued that I produce artwork that
reinforces stereotypical images of the female body, but by depicting my body as
an image I am able to suggest my presence while confirming my absence. There is
a suspension of disbelief taking place in the viewing public, as they want to
see image and body simultaneously. The overtly sexual nature of the body
compels the viewer into the position of voyeur, only to reveal itself as an
inanimate object.
This wilful delusion is
inherent to the medium of photography – the desire to look at a 2-dimensional
photograph and believe in the integrity of the 3-dimensional objects that are
suggested by the surface.
