Module 3

Self Portrait

Potentially the most straightforward, the aim of module 3 was to produce a self-portrait. In the prior semester, I painted my first self-portrait, so this has been a recent development in my practice. In the production of the self-portrait for this module, I came to realise that my works throughout my university experience have unconsciously explored a sort of dualism. Whether it’s visual contrasts, conceptual opposites, or the constraints of binary systems, the theme of dualism emerges.

I drew the inspiration for my painting while watching the horror series Midnight Mass (Popular Culture Returns!), where there is a scene of an old man being stalked in the dark with only a lit match for light. As he scans his environment, his flame catches the glints of eyes stalking him in the dark. I found the image of him dimly lit to be an interesting image to capture, being highly contrasting with the opportunity to explore how coloured glazes interact on a black background. Rather than copy the source image verbatim, I took a photograph recreating the image, manipulating the lighting and contrast. I then added a much dimmer-lit version of myself behind the initial figure, creating a scene of me stalking myself.

I have elected to leave the conceptual meaning of this work vague. Should the viewer recognise the darkened figure to be the same as the lit subject, they may infer a more esoteric interpretation than someone who simply sees a macabre “horror” scene.