The self is not the face or the body but is an abstraction of the mind. The intangibility of the self means that one is never truly able to create a self-portrait. The self is an unknown; a constantly evolving abstract based on a collection of shared experiences and flawed memories.
Self [other] is from a series that seeks to challenge the photograph as a still image whilst considering David Hume’s notion that “man is a bundle or collection of different perceptions which succeed one another with an inconceivable rapidity and are in perpetual flux and motion”. We never actually can have an idea of the self because we can’t have any idea of something persisting uninterrupted and unchanging through time at all. The flawed mind does not help in fixing the stillness of a photographic moment in order to represent the self.
This visual representation of Hume’s theories is able to co-exist with those of other philosophers such as Daniel Dennett. The strong sense of narrative within the photograph facilitates Dennett’s idea that “people often tell themselves stories to make sense of their world, and they feature in the stories as a character, and that convenient but fictional character is the self”. The corresponding impression of this narrative is that of the self-portrait.
Private view / Golwg Breifat
Friday 9th September 2011 7 – 9PM
Gwener 19fed Medi 2011 7 – 9YP
Exhibition continues until 24th September 2011
Arddangosfa yn parhau tan 24ain Medi 2011
Open Wednesday – Saturday 12 – 5PM
Amserau agor Mercher – Sadwrn 12 – 5YP
Admission free / Mynediad yn rhad ac am ddim