Seeing Jon Spencer (as Heavy Trash) and in awe of how he controlled the audience with the mesmerising expressions of his eyes led me to attempt to capture that expressionistic aura through paint, then turning to self-portraits and random eyes from Instagram posts. The concept being to try to project the character, mood of a person that was initially photographed and posted in a second through the equally quick execution of paint
As I realised some were more successful than others I was taken back to John Berger’s ‘Ways of Seeing’ and the chapter that portrays females as objects within art, drawing in the voyeuristic viewer.
These eyes are of the diverse populace on Instagram, those that innocently photograph themselves but then post the result. At this stage identity and ownership is lost; who sees them, how they are ‘used’ the ‘object’ is unaware. My eyes stripped of all facial features but the glaring ovals are hopefully empowering over the audience- making you feel uncomfortable make you blink, look away. Anything but invite you in; thereby issuing return of control to the origin
Acrylic, encaustic paint with pigment transfer on wood
21×30 cm (each panel)
the Art of Steven Harris 