Veils (photographs, videos, 2017-19)


       selfie, (Veils) {photograph} 2017

selfie {photograph}) 2017

While cutting veggies on a stainless steel prep table, the sun became intense as it reflected simultaneiously through several open windows, onto the reflective counter behind and caste myself as layers shadows onto the wall infront of me. These accidental layering of shadows cast no identifyable visage or subject. At the time I thought it funny as an antithesis of a Selfie, so I snapped it. Unlike the ubiquitous selfie - a gesture capturing a moment, most often in best form for social media, selfie is irreverently uncooperative: offering no identifiable characterization of self.
This work, shot in 2017, was shot in recorded in Costa Rica, while living in relative domestic isolation, save from occasional visits, before the global isolation (lockdown) period began.
It is related in subject and form to Veils, a group of photographs and and uncut videos (with diegetic sound) that capture attendant details of domestic life in the form of shadows, rather than the actual subjects or objects in question.
(While direct documentation of the domestic environment, Veils are quiet abstractions, aural and visual sensations where traces of unfamiliar or unrecognizable objects move gently in accord with their complementary environmental forces.)







all rights reserved/copyright fiona bowie 2017-2023
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