REEL Solo in the Cell
Images in this exhibit were inspired by a recent viewing of The Running Man, a 1963 British film about a man trying to right a perceived injustice by faking his own death for insurance money and taking on a new identity. This requires him to suspect others’ acceptance of that new identity.
In 2014, identity has taken on new meanings. Our own physicality is becoming increasingly less important in forming our identity. We are groomed to conform to media images of others deemed more important than our ‘reality’ and in cyberspace, an illusion of identity is ‘real enough’.
What does it mean to be ‘real’ or ‘reel’ and how do we imagine, interpret and re-interpret our own identity and that of others, when given scant or presumed details of others online or even in a physical world and a pre-written script of expectations?
The images of Once, Greek Isle, Glance, Dance, Doubt, Guy and Girl are ‘momentary’ portraits of identities formed and a story told but what is ‘reel’ or ‘real’ is never clear. As with cinema, a viewer looking at a physical painting, will write the script, create his/her own narrative, filling in gaps, re-interpreting what is before them, working from another identity.