Excavating Artiface

We are all image-makers, whether in paint, pixels or persona, and every image contains a vulnerability and resistance to exposure. Inevitably, the acts of looking at and making images lead to a kind of erotic pathos. Seduced by the ornamental skins of images and individuals, we seek bonds of emotion and empathy in external artifice. But while these skins provide clues as to what may lie beneath the surface, they ultimately conceal more than they reveal.

Inspired by portraiture, couture and the history of painting, I look to images where artifice reigns, in the historical portraits and contemporary fashion photographs that feign perfection. In the studio, I provoke their metamorphosis through experimental processes and hybrid modes of image making to excavate their artifice. The resulting works are portraits of portraits that dismantle the spectacle of image-making, and reflect the fragile nature of seeing and being seen.