Artist Statement:

I examine the perception and construction of identity through performance, assimilation, and the relationship of self and other.  I consider historical, geographical, cultural, psychological and stereotypical observations and what part they play in self-perception and the construction / presentation /experience of identity.  The core of my work is the necessity for constant analysis using myself as primary subject.

I explore conscious and subconscious identification and question, through the women I photograph and through myself, how individuals develop feelings of selfhood and connection.  I attempt to reveal the self through sameness and difference.  I am interested in individual symbols of power as those who participate in my projects share (and relinquish) their power in order to see themselves outside themselves and find themselves, to be portrayed, represented, seen, exposed. This exercise has raised many questions and heightened my awareness of how geographical identity, culture and gender roles pass on through connections with individuals, through experiences shared and the impact one can have on another’s life.

The production of my work is an interactive performance and an experimental space; I document my interactions and produce work with participants to procure an enhanced consciousness of self.  The images I produce serve as research material as they attempt to grasp the relationship to self and varying personalities, identities and moods behind body postures, facial expressions and stylizations that the camera is able to capture. Each participant as well as each viewer is confronted with the process of performance in photography, in the gallery installation, in the space between people and in the conception of identity, so that the powers of creation, of signifiers, of intimacy, of identity are challenged and exposed.