Self Portrait (2018)
Oil paint on plaster
27.5 x 19.6 x 2 inches each (69.8 x 49.7 x 5 cm)
Images courtesy the artist
Self Portrait is a ten-piece sculpture, in which one hundred names are painted in black oil paint on ten plaster tablets. The work was completed by Shirt in 2018 at school, and first exhibited in the Kunsthaus Baselland Museum in Basel, Switzerland, as part of FHNW’s MFA show that year "Atlas Of Heavens," curated by Chus Martinez. In 2019, the work was exhibited again in the group show "Of Color" held at Helmhaus Museum in Zurich, Switzerland, this time with the works laid flat on a wooden table although in an updated physical state: with one of the tablets presented in cracked pieces.
In the artist’s words:
"While the work was still in progress, one of my professors told me that making the casts in plaster so big and flat would run the risk of the individual tablets possibly cracking in transit, or over time. This to me made sense in a poetic way, as the very notion of my being inspired by these people, many of which I will never know or meet will change, erode, and very well break down over the course of my life and beyond. Debuting in the thesis show the work was only a few days old, fresh and new, my “self portrait” propped up on a shelf: a snapshot of who I was at a time leaning coolly against the wall. Only weeks later indeed one from the ten tablets splintered down the middle and cracked in three. I will exhibit and let the work evolve as I do."
Additional photos made available upon request
Oil paint on plaster
27.5 x 19.6 x 2 inches each (69.8 x 49.7 x 5 cm)
Images courtesy the artist
Self Portrait is a ten-piece sculpture, in which one hundred names are painted in black oil paint on ten plaster tablets. The work was completed by Shirt in 2018 at school, and first exhibited in the Kunsthaus Baselland Museum in Basel, Switzerland, as part of FHNW’s MFA show that year "Atlas Of Heavens," curated by Chus Martinez. In 2019, the work was exhibited again in the group show "Of Color" held at Helmhaus Museum in Zurich, Switzerland, this time with the works laid flat on a wooden table although in an updated physical state: with one of the tablets presented in cracked pieces.
In the artist’s words:
"While the work was still in progress, one of my professors told me that making the casts in plaster so big and flat would run the risk of the individual tablets possibly cracking in transit, or over time. This to me made sense in a poetic way, as the very notion of my being inspired by these people, many of which I will never know or meet will change, erode, and very well break down over the course of my life and beyond. Debuting in the thesis show the work was only a few days old, fresh and new, my “self portrait” propped up on a shelf: a snapshot of who I was at a time leaning coolly against the wall. Only weeks later indeed one from the ten tablets splintered down the middle and cracked in three. I will exhibit and let the work evolve as I do."
Additional photos made available upon request