{via}
Samore's photographs are strikingly similar to some of the work that I've been moving toward. He has also produced word portraits on transparent surfaces.
I place words on transparent surfaces — like windows, mirrors, screens, curtains — by way of etching, silk-screen, sandblasting, vinyl letters, paint. Let me tell you about them. In Descriptions I collect information from various sources in the manner of a content analysis. I compile endless lists based on ethnicity; sexual preference; chest-waist-hip measurements; age, height and weight data; adjectives describing personality and body features. Through the language of "objective" classifications I construct someone from the reservoir of my own subjectivity. And perhaps my friends look at the same material and build someone different. Like a portrait painter, like a biographer, in Portraits I research one individual. I gather information from press conferences, hagiographies, talk shows, psychological case studies, autobiographies. Sometimes I can interview this person, and with their permission talk with their acquaintances. Sometimes I present a group of words as in a survey and you select the adjectives that best represent who you are. In the end, I arrive at a list of words about this person. {via}
It is surprising to find such a similar type of alternative portraiture, and I am considering the implications of layering words.
