Aldobranti

I have always been aware of my exteriority, my Otherness -- just not being part of it.

Pink Floyd sang for me

Heaven sent, the promised land
Looks alright from where I stand
'Cause I’m the man on the outside looking in

I made this image #1503 as a contradiction to my sense of being an impostor as an artist which for years was rooted in not being a proper artist for not painting or drawing. I stand against the wall in a blacked-out room and open the shutter on the camera, I then trace my outline, holding a laser pointer to my body so the spot is [generally] visible to the camera. 

This sense of an impostor status is perhaps a driver for this whole project: to find out how artists "do it". I hope that all applicants can share in these discoveries...


Comments

  1. Adele Giles Art ResearchApril 22, 2023 at 3:45 PM

    I suspect we can all identify with struggles of imposter syndrome (at least at some point in our artistic journey). I too felt that I had to defend what I do as an art form because I wasn’t drawing or painting. I understand where you are coming from. Great project and an interesting theme to explore.

    I like that you referred to it as your “otherness”. I too made a self portrait series entitled “the other”. As it is relevant to your project, here is my response to “the other”: https://www.adelegiles.art/the-other

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  2. AldobrantiApril 26, 2023 at 5:52 PM

    thank you for the link -- in your work, the clouds play out against the swirls of fabric. nice piece and the colour palette shift works well.
    I have improved on my self-belief about drawing https://bit.ly/3RqHy33

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Adele Giles Art ResearchMay 30, 2023 at 8:09 PM

      Those drawings are fantastic! I did some life drawing earlier in the year where I stared intensely at the model and never at the paper. The results turn out quite similar! I think I preferred them all to my deliberate mark making ironically.

      Definitely keep up the drawing. The one where you can see glimpses of your body moving around as you make your marks is particularly interesting.

      I gave up on photographing myself before the lockdowns and moved onto drawing with charcoal. You are inspiring me to switch that camera back on. Perhaps I could look at drawing as a performative action (like the action painting era) and capture some in motion shots...who knows.. night time ideas floating haha

      Delete
    2. AldobrantiMay 31, 2023 at 7:27 AM

      There is a liberation in this form of drawing: a lack of tactile feedback from surface to stylus to hand, and the lack of the trace made in the moment, relying only on memory "have I done the back of my head?"
      And I hope there are many other inspirations here to take your practice somewhere wild.

      Delete
  3. Gen DoyMay 6, 2023 at 11:01 AM

    I was intrigued by the inventiveness which produced this performance-image. it really is a self-portrait, but of whom? intriguingly we can't see and we don't know, and does the creator of the image see (in the dark) or know themselves?

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    Replies
    1. AldobrantiMay 7, 2023 at 10:51 AM

      When making this [series of] image[s] all I know is that I feel the bulb of the remote release under my foot, I have heard the click of the shutter opening, I feel the track of my hand along my limbs or [awkwardly] around my back, and the intensity of the laser spot which is brighter in the total darkness.
      In making the image, I am trying to define a place/a landing zone in the image for another, perhaps removing myself from the scene

      Delete
    2. AldobrantiMay 30, 2023 at 7:37 AM

      Gen, thank you for this critical direction: it was easy to start with the distance between self-portrait and performance art, but an issue of "presence" completes a tripod with the act of "presentation" as a performer and "representation" as a self-portraitist. The question of who is in a scene is always moot.

      Delete

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