Throughout my painting practice I explore current themes of human identity. With technological advances in the field of human genetics and a globalized media culture, the notion of personal identity becomes unclear. Terms like, doppelgänger, the copy and otherness, have become familiar phenomena in contemporary western society and are evident in its cultural discourses. Increased multiple births and the lingering threat of human cloning, make us further question who we are physically as well as psychologically. What is it exactly that makes each of us unique? The continuous reproduction of our own self image, through the immediacy of digital photography, plays an important role in how we see ourselves in relation to others. My work explores this state of constant individual re-definition. I am interested in how portraiture has changed in the face of technology, and how through the human act of painting, it still manages to capture an essence beyond the capability of mechanical reproduction. As an Identical twin, I have a specific interest in how the duplication and fracture of a subject’s image reveals two separate entities within one perceived identity. Through techniques that reference the subjective role in media culture and genetic technology, my work aspires to uncover the truly human elements of identity and empathy. |