Project Proposal

My project will have a final of five images which will be edited from an indefinite number of images.  These will be digital, inkjet prints in various sizes with the largest print being 11x17.  I will display the prints in simple, thin, black frames so not to distract from the actual art work in the frame.  I will be the subject portrayed in the images but I will have different collaborators for each print.  I will allow each person to do my costuming and make-up and then take a picture of the final product.  The capture of my new look will be in the room of the person who dresses me up.  Some artists that work in similar manners are Cindy Sherman, Nikki S. Lee, and Caleb Cole.  My work is influenced by metaphysics and the debate of whether personal identity is of the physical body or the mind.  This will be an investigation on how our physical appearance constitutes who people perceive us to be.  However, the change of our outside appearance does not change the being who lives inside our bodies and ultimately is our identity.  This project will also address issues dealing with the pressure from society to embody a specific persona depending how we portray ourselves physically.  There are also possibilities of this work touching on issues of expected gender roles in society and how we perform them.  I want the audience to question how we present ourselves and how we use our body as a form of expression.  I am looking for an intellectual response to the work to start a conversation about our path for existence.