Glow-in-the-dark Self-portraits
The Glow-in-the-dark Self-portraits project chronicles a series of experiments with glow-in-the-dark body paint, applied to the body, exposed to light and then used as the light source for long-exposure photographs. Unbounded from the traditional photographic relationship to light, these works instead light themselves -- both at the time of photographing and, in more recent work, with luminescent vinyl mounted behind the images, providing the possibility of a glow-in-the-dark installation for exhibition. Here, in a literal way, there is no body represented -- self-less self-portraits in which the body disappears into the very conceptual premise for its appearance, architectural frame for the support of its image. This is not only a disappeared body, but one ghosted by its attempts to appear, frustrated by the very circumstance and performative constraint that allows for it to appear in the first place.
Self-portrait Chimera: Epic (detail)