Painted Persona
Nicole Anne Santangelo & Elisha Lozares
2022
Video Installation
Painted Persona is an installation that presents the act of concealing oneself by revealing a fabricated identity. Projected unto a canvas, the video being screened shows myself in the act of completing a painted portrait. As I move closer to the painting, I am unhappy with the outcome and decided to cover up the reflective section of the canvas with a new self.
This new self unveils an inverted version of myself while performing the process. The video for this installation piece was filmed by Elisha Lozares.
In the middle of the gallery space, an easel with a video being projected on its canvas is displayed. As the video plays, the audience may choose to stay still or walk around the installation. They then become spectators of an event which is the making of a new desired self. As I was creating this project, it was originally meant to address identity in relation to consumerism within social media. However, as I was in the process of research and editing, I realized that I am fabricating my own identity to display onto this piece.
In Foutch's essay Moving Pictures: Magic Lanterns, Portable Projection, and Urban Advertising in the Nineteenth Century, I learned that this medium was meant for advertisements. She states that the "specification calls for the advertisements of any desired character to be projected". In the case of this piece, I am projecting a desired character of an artist creating a self portrait of a persona that I want to show.
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1 See page 741 of Foutch's Moving Pictures: Magic Lanterns, Portable Projection, and Urban Advertising in the Nineteenth Century