Tiyana Mitchell
Blue Portrait
Prompt: To create a piece which further explored the question we were researching in seminar in response to a work seen at the MoMA , René Magritte’s ‘The Portrait,’ which aided our question. For my piece I looked into identity and how far can a portrait be manipulated before it is no longer considered a portrait.
I wanted to look into how a portrait can be viewed, whether this is by the physical manipulation of the image or through the separation of aspects of the face. I wanted to take the features on the face, separate them and arrange them in a way that is random, the pieces can individually be considered a portrait along with the collection of pieces together be seen as an alternate portrait. I used a blue tone for each of the pieces to remove a sense of identity and emotion from the work. I selected three different people, and for eyes and ears I used the same image flipped horizontally only adjusting the lighting slightly to give the impression that is an alternate feature. They eyes lack the iris which in a traditional portrait can be seen to give the piece a sense of emotion. The ears, mouth and nose have unjoint lines, which can be connected through perceptual completion and are joined with the background as if they are melted together. All together the final pieces showcase a deconstructed portrait bringing together the basic features of a face with the intent of creating a portrait like image. It has the fundamental pieces of a traditional portrait however through the colour and deconstruction of each piece, it lacks the conventional view of a portrait.
