Image and Identity
Who are you? Mind Brain Neurons Soul Experiences Memories Emotions Relationships Family Pets Knowledge Face Body Hair Skin Clothes Possessions House Food Sex Gender Ethnicity Geography Nationality Culture Subculture Politics Employment What makes you, YOU? List and discuss potential different sources of identity.
Are you your body? Discuss: body image and self-image. Physical characteristics: face, hair, skin, body, height. Physical capabilities and limitations. Athletics. Facial recognition, fingerprinting, DNA, other forms of physical identity.
Are you your mind? What is the difference between brain and mind? What do we mean by mind? Is it contained within the brain? Is it the same as memories? Is there a soul? How is that different from mind?
Are you your relationships? How do our relationships create or reveal our identity? Family, friends, enemies, animals
Are you what you drive? What kinds of things do we buy to convey identity? Clothes, shoes, jewelry? Homes and furniture?
Are you your online “curated” self? The “curated self” refers to the way we choose images, words and media to represent ourselves online. We often only show the best of ourselves, editing out (curating) the things we don’t want people to see or know about us. Do you have different online personas for your family and your friends? How has your online self changed as you look back at old posts/images? Are you creating a self-portrait online? How does that self-portrait differ from the idea of traditional artist self-portraits?
Frida Kahlo self-portraits Mexico, 1907 – 1954. How do her portraits reveal her identity? What is important to her? Physical characteristics: skin color, hair, including eyebrows, lip hair. Culture: clothing, environment, symbols, colors, style. What is her emotional state in each of these paintings? How do you know?
Frida Kahlo self-portraits She lived with chronic pain due to a serious accident as a teenager, and had a malformed leg due to childhood polio. She often painted herself, because she was so often alone while recovering from medical procedures.
Lucien Freud self-portraits German-born British painter 1922-2011. Grandson of Sigmund Freud. These are two self-portraits. Are they idealized? Symbolic? What is in them apart from the figure? What are his emotional states in each of the paintings? How do you know?
Lucien Freud portraits of his mother Freud said "I paint people, not because of what they are like, not exactly in spite of what they are like, but how they happen to be.” What do you think he means by this? Freud usually painted people he knew well: family members and friends. The paintings would take a long time, and the model had to pose until the painting was finished. He spent 4000 hours on a series of paintings of his mother. From his paintings, what do you think was most important to his sense of identity?
Diptych and Dualism When two images are placed side by side, we naturally compare them to each other. How are they related? How are they different? In philosophy and religion, dualism refers to a division into two parts: good vs. evil, creation vs. destruction, mind vs. body, etc.
Diptych: same subject Andy Warhol, “Marilyn Monroe.” When the same subject is used in both images, it may reveal different aspects of that subject. This diptych repeats the subject almost exactly, with color variations. Does this image imply a narrative? What is it?
Diptych: same subject A vertical diptych, showing different views of the same subject. What different aspects of the subject are revealed in these images? Explore the composition of the elements.
Diptych: same subject
Diptych: same subject
Diptych: different subjects Gosotei Hirosada, “The Actors Nakamura Utaemon IV and Nakayama Nanshi III.” When different subjects are shown, we naturally contrast them. How are they related? How are they different?
Diptych: different subjects
Diptych: different subjects
Diptych: different subjects
Image and Identity