double catalogue
Double brought together both emerging and established artists who work with self portraiture as a significant part of their practice. Various permutations of self portraiture have been adopted by artists to explore social concerns including sexuality, gender, and ethnicity and more recently the plurality of identity through digital media. Underlying all self portraiture is the mystery of how an individual sees himself / herself as the other; when one objectifies ones own body creating a double.
The double performs through various scenarios in the works in this show. In some instances the double motif is adopted by the artist and is apparent in their re-representations of themselves. In other works the double is deployed as the portrait operates like a mirror; the viewer steps into the autobiographer's shoes. However this doubling is not a closed circuit. The curatorial proposition for Double was to ask each artists to entrust their avatar to be positioned with another in the gallery space. In the final instance some of these relationships may be obvious while others arbitrary, as the viewers position shifts to third party; a witness to the doubling between identities.
Images left to right: Craig McNab (large format prints), Jim Cooper (ceramic dog), Rebecca Pilcher (video), Rachel Gillies (photograph), Jamie Oliphant (wooden painted bust), Justine Walker (photograph), Kirsten Ferguson (drawings).
Artists included CAROLIN CASEY, JIM COOPER, KIRSTEN FERGUSON, RACHEL GILLIES, ANGELA LYON, CRAIG McNAB, JAMIE OLIPHANT, REBECCA PILCHER, and JUSTINE WALKER