palimpsestic portraiture

I will select a portraitee.

I will select several photographs from their life, including one from the first month of life and one taken upon selection time. The current photograph will be a straitforward, centered polaroid on a blank background: anonymizing. I will arrange the photographs in chronological order.

I will paint the first in the chronological series. This painting will be executed realistically, in oils, on a square, hand-stretched canvas. When this is finished, I will take a single, clear, straightforward polariod photograph. I will then paint the next image in the series over the first painting. I will continue the process of documentation and painting over until I reach the most current image.

This piece will be hung with the process polaroids alongside.

This project creates a palimpsistic portrait. Each representation of self is swallowed by the newer representation. I create a painting with an invisible history. All paintings have invisible histories, but the raison d'etre of this paiting will be its invisible history. It holds its former selves within, much as a human being does. The polaroids serve as souvenirs. They are analogous to all the sentimental detritus that we accumulate to keep ourselves from getting cut adrift, from getting temporal vertigo. We have our history in our hands. We feel grounded, safe. We feel sure that things have happened to us, that our life has contained discrete conditions and events.

I will make a series of portraits in this manner, the final image in each will be a straight, centered shot on a blank background. They will be the same size. Perhaps I will extend this project to include place. A city is a palimpsest, after all. Ruins serve as a foundation for future ruins.

I have thought that I may do a self portrait with 24 layers. I would then continue to create a new layer each year for the rest of my life. If a person bought it, they would have to be willing to lend it to me one month out of the year so that I could add a new layer. I would draw up a contract. The last layer would be my last portrait before death. Hopefully I would die while in the process of painting this layer. That would be the most interesting possibility.

If you steal this idea, I will personally hunt you down. I will scramble your brains in with my morning eggs.