A question asked …who am I?  I am many moments in continual change, fragments at any one time.

During a recent lecture a student asked my views on portraiture in photography, specifically if I believed a portrait captured a sitter. A complex question on a complex topic, often asked by students. In short, I replied …’No …then again, perhaps.”

We are far too complex to be captured in a single frame, photographic or painted as it simply reflects a single moment. However, in the same manner that a single sentence taken from a book of 1,000 pages is never fully reflective of the larger story it is still very much part of the content. It may also be the most important line in the 1,000 pages. How the viewer or reader translates the author’s work likewise brings another dimension to how it is interpretated.

This work’s title comes from the dichotomy of self-perception and a statement to the perceptions which others may consider.

Each of the three columns contain a singular shard of recycled acrylic. Each shard is taken from a single large laboratory chromatography cylinder. The purpose of the cylinder was to separate a complex mixture of compounds, used within chemistry to reduce its contents down to a singular form.

Two of the splinters were then broken down even further in decreasing scale, each resulting in an even lesser resemblance to the initial singular shard. All three forms came from the same structure and each in their eventual form weighed the exact same amount (376grams) when cast in the clear acrylic.

This work is a response to the varied interpretations and perception that can be viewed of the same mass not only by others but also ourselves, in the same manner a portrait is considered by the author, the sitter and the viewer.