FACE2FACE 2017
Garbage doesn't lie. Wrappers, cans, bottles and cigarettes contradict what we tell ourselves -- and what we tell others -- about how we live.
Italian author Italo Calvino suggests that we are all defined by what we throw away. We are what we dump.
FACE2FACE explores waste at a more personal level, making connection between our public face and what is privately discarded.
Portraits focus on someone’s appearance or character but this series focuses on our private face, hidden from others. Is our true identity found in the rubbish we throw out each day?
I asked friends to collect their rubbish for the week. I superimposed close ups of this waste onto a photo of their face. I turned these into negatives. As an x-ray points out the weakness or disease in our body, so these expose our waste as being a hidden side of our lifestyle.
Many people found it confronting to come face to face with the volume of waste they accumulated over a week. Our consumerism leads us to think of rubbish as a necessary evil – provided it can be removed far away to a landfill or washed down the drain.
The work references 16th c Italian painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo – known for his evocative portraits made of fruit, vegetables, flowers, fish, and books - and Vik Muiz who photographed pickers of recyclable materials in Brazil’s largest rubbish dump, the workers then collaborated to make huge self-portraits out of the garbage.
FACE2FACE was shown at Interlude Gallery Sydney and Photoaccess Canberra; and in group show Fragments Shored Against the Ruins, Melbourne..
FACE2FACE, 29.7 x 44.5 chromogenic prints on Kodak Professional Endura Metallic Paper Edition of 3