Exhibition Views
The process of acting creates complex states of identity within the performer: they split into a dual state of both themselves and the character they seek to represent. In the series titled “Suspension,” actors are photographed in this process of becoming someone other than themselves. Each actor was asked to choose a character and perform this character in their home, workplace, or another familiar setting. Despite the fact that these portraits are staged, they are in a sense documentary photographs.
These familiar settings are locations which these actors connect with performance and in which they often rehearse. The baroque theatricality of the lighting in these pictures refers to early paintings by artists such as Carravagio and Georges de La Tour, that attempt to tell a story through chiaroscuro’s dramatic effect. When presented under this spot light, the subjects resemble performers on stage. This evocative visual style combines with more contemporary environments resulting in something that might be more likely found in a painting by Edward Hopper, framing the actors cinematically within their environment. These environments, like those in Hopper’s paintings are very banal and mundane settings.This relationship between the lighting and the setting represents a performer’s ability to mentally focus on their character regardless of their actual surrounding.
This work raises questions about the ontology of portraiture, as well as identity and self-image. The implication is that a traditional portrait, where one attempts to present themselves “truthfully,” communicates less about a subject than one where they are acting a character. At times, it seems we are all more comfortable acting as someone we are not.
Media Contact: Zinnia Naqvi
zinnia.naqvi@ryerson.ca
I•M•A Gallery, 80 Spadina Avenue, Suite 305, Toronto, ON (416) 703-2235
www.imagalleryru.ca
I•M•A Gallery is a non-profit student and faculty-run gallery, providing an exhibition venue for contemporary, Canadian and international film, new media and photography artists. The gallery is supported by the Project-Funds Allocation Committee for Students (PFACS), Ryerson University’s School of Image Arts and generous donations from community and individual partners.