James Nguyen
Castle Hill High School
SELF PORTRAITS
Drawing
Graphite on Paper
My body of work explores the distortion of identity due to our hyper-fixation on personal appearance. Insecurities cause us to lose a sense of ourselves, of those who are close to us and our outlook on life. In my work the contortion and deformation of the face represent this struggling identity, uncomfortable in its own skin. The use of grayscale is intended to create a sense of overwhelming intensity, so the audience focuses on the fluctuating form which expresses my own experience of helplessness.
My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: Hajime Sorayama, Juul Kraijer, Ozabu.
Marker's Commentary
This collection of self-portraits juxtaposes hyper realistic representation with a distortion of the subject to draw the audience into the inner thoughts and experience of the artists, asking the audience to reflect on the relationship between the inner emotions and the exterior presentation of the individual. In a society that so relentlessly documents the outer presentation of the person, the internal struggles and challenges can easily be overlooked or minimalised to the detriment of wellbeing. Expert use of the graphite medium and a monotonal colour palette, alluding to long exposure or manipulated photographs, forces the audience to confront the “real gone wrong”. The faces in the images are pulled, stretched and exaggerated to create distortion, tortured versions revealing the inner torment that goes unseen. Subtle and consistent tonal gradation sits against stark black backgrounds confronting the viewer with the intense inner emotions and struggle of the subject.