the metaphor in this is killing me

so I found this photograph (unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, not credited to the artist) the other night, while lurking sparkly-hipster/tattoo/cute-boy/fox blogs for love hunt.

at the time, it struck me for its Relevance to My Life, and Things. (cute-sparkly-hipster-tattooed-boys, and a Silly Fox? Moz my life just now.) since then, it’s been absolutely stuck in my mind. 

because it reads like a frighteningly detailed allegory of … me. or parts of me. and stark, and self-conscious. my life and choices and fascinations and preoccupations. and the things that my soul is tangled in and invested in and that drain me.

… Allegory of a Silly Fox. but, seriously.

[photo: Kyle Johnson (flickr: kjten22, tumblr: kjphotos), ‘Fences’ (2009)]

Adam Fedderly [model: Cole Mohr], in The Block (2010)

so I’ve remembered why I don’t tend to lurk male fashion. sometimes, Cole Mohr is kind of like the human version of a unicorn. I’m ruined. for. real. life. (hence: for surreal?)

okay, wow, so I’ve been meaning to say that sterility has incredible hair.

and, occasionally, an unf-enducing undercut. he’s even got a fan club. and is the second in my series of hipster tumblr hair crushes. go look.

Paul Hartnet, model: Cole Mohr

‘Betty’ (2010), Ben Hopper, Naked Girls With Masks. [Unicorn Mask designed & commissioned by Sarah McAndrew.]

Body is not limited by thought, nor thought by body.

my friend Jessie Adams takes photographs. you should look at them. [digital test from film, 2011]

things that are absolutely relevant to my interests

the time I spent not sleeping last night was—you will be pleased to learn—put to good use. I endured the silent hours of my insomnia in aesthetic contemplation … and have decided that these are my two favourite portraits of David Lynch:

[portrait, 2008, by Jerome Bonnet]

[portrait by Jeremy and Claire Weiss: day19]

sterility (2010)

boy’s got swag.  this is my absolute favourite van Gogh. it’s that incredible cross into Klimt and Toulouse-Lautrec and Munch and Mucha. my boys from undergrad.

[Vincent Van Gogh, [self portrait] (1887). Amsterdam: Van Gogh Museum]

sterility (?2011)

dude makes some totally inspired self-portraits. go look at them.

[ Bridget Mac, masculine/feminine (2010) ]

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Annual National Youth Self Portrait Prize

When wandering through the National Youth Portrait Prize 2010 finalist exhibition, currently on display at the National Portrait Gallery, you could be forgiven for forgetting where you are.  These are not the insecure works-in-development of young students, but a collection of professional, stylistically mature, striking and very self-aware self portraits.

Portraiture allows an artist to visually represent identity.  Any artwork can contain likeness, but a portrait is actually aboutthe person it represents.  In the conservative tradition, portraits have sought to recreate sitters exactly, that they might be recognised by their families and their peers.  Works might incorporate motifs to reflect characteristics that the artist wishes to highlight: a framed image of the family man’s children; the carelessly strewn maps of the adventurer.  This adds depth to how the viewer understands the subject and so, to their experience of the portrait.  That said, even if a work is figuratively abstracted, the very knowledge that it represents a person gives viewers a means to understand it (or begin to).  In this way, portraiture is inherently ‘approachable’.  From our earliest moments on earth we learn to interpret and understand the people around us.  One doesn’t need to be a historian or an aesthete to care about what makes people who they are.

The National Youth Self Portrait Prize is the third annual competition for artists aged between 18 and 25.  Sponsorship from the Tallis Foundation and the Association of the Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Societies (ADFAS) provides talented young artists the opportunity to compete for $10,000.  The Prize for 2010 went to NSW artist Bridget Mac, for her portrait masculine/feminine.  This work is currently on display at the NPG, alongside those of the other fourteen finalists: Robbie Karmel, Joel Arthur and ‘Reges Lobud’ (ACT); Erwin Strobel, Daniel Kim, Todd Fuller, Ashleigh Garwood, Alyssa Chow and Emilio Cresciani (NSW); Jessie Victoria Bonson (NT); Tom Cramond (WA); James Barnett and Sarah Catherine Firth (VIC); and Kim Buck (SA).

Mac’s winning self-portrait, masculine/feminine, is a digitally-edited photographic image of two faces.  Each face is a symmetrical image, created by mirroring one side of the artist’s face (thus, one head is made up of the left side of her face, the other of her right).  The philosophers of Ancient Greece saw facial symmetry as a requisite of perfect beauty.  There is a story that tells of an artist who sought to capture the image of a perfect woman.  For decades, he sketched the face of every beautiful girl he saw, imagined and dreamed; but they fell short of his ideal.  When he found the answer it was really only half an answer: he drew one half of a woman’s face.  Like Pythagoras, he decided that symmetry was so crucial to perfect beauty that, physically, it could not be simulated in art.  Of course, everything is digital nowadays.

Mac’s work is not an attempt to envision perfection.  On the contrary, it is raw and honest – this is what makes it beautiful.  However, it does explore the manner in which we interpret the face and how we use visual stimulus, like symmetry, to ascribe beauty, sexuality and personality.  While it is easy to suggest that one face is more masculine, is it possible to describe why?  Or even which is which?  The title leads viewers to make an assumption about the image, but rationalising that decision is not easy.  The work is a complicated integration of public and private: it explores Mac’s personal presence and identity, while also sharing ideas about representation, interpretation, sexuality and technology. 

For many artists, a self-portrait is as much an expression of their art as it is a representation of self.  How we act and what we say does not always fit with how we define ourselves and this merging of personal identity and public expression can be tense, dynamic and exciting.  Despite this, the popularity of large, relatively unadventurous exhibitions of portraiture seem to encourage the expectation that it is conservative as a genre.  The NPG has made great efforts to overcome this stereotype by displaying portraits in an array of style and, particularly, of media.  This contemporary, forward-looking spirit is embodied in the 2010 National Youth Portrait Prize. 

Some portraits are intimate windows into the person they feature, something that can be confronting for both their subject and viewers.  Alyssa Chow, a design student from NSW, entered a photograph that explores her experience with depression.  She had been “scared of owning herself” and found the act of creating a self-portrait was cathartic.  For her, the competition was “an opportunity to take a risk and put it out there” – to publically acknowledge this aspect of her life. 

The exhibition is an energetic, experimental and engaging collection of work by young, contemporary artists.  It is a playful combination of works that, while predominantly photography and new media, speak of a variety of influence and ideas.  Some artists use their portraits to explore ideas that are incredibly personal; others deal with concerns that are more universal; some, it seems, have even tried to distance themselves from their likeness.  In this way, the exhibition explores the question of what constitutes a self-portrait.  The works question conformity and explore a myriad of ideas and approaches to form and media.  Perhaps, in seeking to define themselves visually, these artists also redefine the nature of portraiture.

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the 3^rd Annual National Youth Self Portrait Prize 2010 is on display at the National Portrait Gallery, continuing until 12 September.

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originally published in BMA issue 353