THE RISK PICTURES
In The Risk Pictures, my collaborators and I experiment most strongly with the traditional relationship between artist and subject.
People who live in stigmatized bodies are often made to feel ashamed. They—we—labor under a judgmental, aggressive public gaze turned in our direction.
I am very aware that sitting for a portrait is a vulnerable experience. The subject agrees to be stared at for hours at a time. The traditional dynamic either defines that the artist as examiner, one who wields more power than the subject. Yet, if the portrait is a commission, it is the subject who holds the (economic) power. It's rarely an equal dynamic. (That said, few of my portraits are commissions.)
In The Risk Pictures, I aim to make myself as vulnerable as my subject. My collaborators come to my studio (in my house) for at least five three-hour sittings. At the two-hour mark, I leave for at least one hour. My subject has complete control of my home. They have my permission to do anything they want. They might eat my food, sleep in my bed, snoop through my belongings, even steal what they want. My promise is that I’ll never ask what they did.
Their commitment, in exchange, is that they must alter their own portrait while I’m gone. I provide all my art supplies, with only technical guidance. I am not allowed to erase what they do, only respond to it.
We repeat this process till the work is complete. The final piece is signed by both of us.
