Portraits, Adhered IMG #34
Rebecca Marimutu
Collage on paper
16 x 20 inches
2021
"At the start of 2021, I started my series “Portraits, Adhered.” Using the nontraditional photographic methods of shooting digitally and directly mounting the self-portraits onto a wooden board via wheat-paste, PVA glue, clear acrylic gesso and/or staples. Through these methods, I am looking to disrupt the material hierarchies in contemporary image and media consumption.
During the period of self-isolation, I’ve been making this ongoing series as a way of self-examination through treating the image of myself as a landscape for abstraction and deconstruction. Working in this style has led me to expand on the sculptural potentials in photography.
I am interested in abstraction as a means of protest, insofar as it breaks through ways we are often allowed to see ourselves in Contemporary art. The forms through which we are allowed to view images of our Black selves are often determined by voices, opinions, and structures that do not look like us. My intention is to use abstraction to both deconstruct and obscure the image of the self—the image of us and the pressure to be represented."
