SELF (III)

Scroll down to see how this piece looks in a room

This is the third in the Self series.

Are we essential selves inside our bodies? Or, do we have illusory senses of self that we adhere to, narrate, and build on as we grow older, based on memory?

As Hannah Arendt writes in her disorienting and illuminating book, The Life of the Mind, "to uncover the 'true' identity of an animal behind its adaptive temporary colour is not unlike the unmasking of the hypocrite. But what then appears under a deceptive surface is not an inside self, an authentic appearance, changeless and reliable in its thereness. The uncovering destroys a deception; it does not discover anything authentically appearing."

We often live in boxes: those constructed by ourselves and our memories and expectations, and those constructed by others. It is sometimes useful to stand outside that idea.

24h X 36w x 1.5d (inches); acrylic on a birch wood panel (that can be easily placed on one or two nails)