"I live in the facial expressions of the other, as I feel him living in mine."
-Maurice Merleau-Ponty, The Primacy of Perception, 1964

"See Through Me" is part of an ongoing project which derives from original "glamour" photos made (of me) during a 1996 performance at the (now vanished) Boston Woolworth's store. The portraits have been extensively digitally manipulated using Photoshop on the computer. The computer processes of layering, cloning, floating, and selecting variations are all ideally suited to my purposes in this project about appearance and identity. Large novajet prints on Lexmatte and vinyl are mounted over the gallery windows, providing a reflective space where you can literally see through my eyes. Tiny inkjet prints on vinyl are mounted on the mirrors of makeup compacts.

These are contemporary vanitas images, examining the constructions and impermanence of the corporeal and psychological self. Art history is filled with images of women, vainly examining themselves in mirrors and gazing through windows, which reflect only illusion and transience. In these pieces, however, the lady's looking back at you.

A transformed image of my face changes both your and my fantasy about who "I" might be. Multicolored variations on the space between my eyes redefine the boundaries between inside and outside the Gallery at Green Street, which is itself situated on a significant Bostonian social border. In the Vanitas pieces my identity blends with that of the viewer, as you search through my features to find your own in the mirror, while possibly contemplating "making up" yourself at the same time. Fragmentation and reflection open up the disguise of my "integrated" self, and give you an invitation to enter through the ruptures. You can be in my face if I can be in yours.

"Looking into others' minds-feeling toward others- is not a precise science but requires imagination and creativity. It is perhaps the most creative thing we do each day, as we seek to match faces with characters and personal experiences."
-Jonathan Cole, About Face, 1997

Contact the Artist:

Linda Brown, MAE/1987 | lbrown@acad.suffolk.edu