Self - Portrait in Place: Virtual Version

Scroll down to view an online version of the exhibition that brought the walking

Self-Portrait into the Gallery of the American University of Paris in December/January 2021-22.

Use your phone to call up audio visual pairings via the QR codes.

This exhibition created a space to contemplate subject formation, the city , illness and the body or the pandemic. It was shaped to encourage exchanges about crossing disciplinary lines and transdisciplinary practices. The exploration of “the subject” and notions of the self I explored might be expanded and generalized by viewers who conceived their own “Self Portrait in Place” using their own frames and preferred media. It features art conceived for "Self Portrait in Montmarte" recombined for the gallery.

On May 16, 2021, viewer/participants for the first rendition of the Self-Portrait received a map of 12 sites within the 1-kilometer circle. Each site associated the experience of a place with onsite and online elements to shape a moment in the composite, scattered portrait. The neighborhood became a gallery, while cell phones brought what was hidden, indoors in my home into the open air. The process followed my day-to-day paths, while mimicking the movements and practices of the tourists who usually throng the quarter. The self-portrait was thus generated by this mise-en- scene and the movements and observations of participants as they walked from site to site, layering what was in front of them with online sounds and images.

The scattered subject of “Self Portrait in Montmartre” emerged differently for each person. The collected sites did not add up to a unified image, but instead, to a variegated experience. It invited reflection the idea of subject as a self, as the topic of an artwork, on the body and its imbrication in the city. Participants actively made the portrait whole in different ways as they layered the subject “Susan”, or “patient,” or “mother” or “migrant” with the sound of an accordion or of their own breath as they climbed the steep streets of Montmartre.

The gallery exhibition brought what was outdoors inside to create a space for continued reflection. Inside, what was digital became palpable. The body of the viewer was no longer immersed in the city, but instead, was engulfed in large paintings that had appeared so much smaller on the screen of a cell phone. The visitor no longer heared only their own heart as they climbed a staircase. Yet, inside, they could hear recordings of others' out of breath voices more distinctly. Brushstrokes, words and scratches could be inspected, while Montmartre became a suite of images. This rendition of the portrait narrowed attention and perceptions, while it also included aspects of my experience that informed the art but could not be shown during COVID-19 lockdowns.

Self-Portrait in Place” followed a path from building entrance to library and then to an atrium that looks out at the Quai d’Orsay and the Seine. Although the rush of students and faculty between classes might mimic the street, the space included resting places with chairs and coffee tables. In the warm gallery, people coud pause in front of a work or sit together to discuss it. They could linger as they associated what they saw first-hand with the digital elements. They could also take an online visit of the original self-portrait, compare the two, or head to Montmartre to retrace the map.

Exhibition curated by Blanca Casas Brullet

With special thanks to Antonella Casellato, Waddick Doyle, Susan Perry, Caroline Pierce and Jonathan Shimony.

In this version, large QR codes become palpable parts of the face to face exhibition as well as leading to a new arrangement of digital components of the portrait. Like visitors to the gallery, On-line viewers can chose to bring the digital elements into their experience of the self-portrait using their phones.

Due to COVID restrictions at the time of the exhibitions there was no vernissage/opening. En lieu of the conversations that usually take place among visitors, I have posted videos and interviews of the installation of the show and visitors' thoughts about it.