Albert Shyong A Yearning That Floats is largely anchored by the mirror in capturing self-portraits. While the mirror is traditionally conceived to reflect the face, almost the entire series consists of faces that are hidden or angled away.
Paul Mpagi Sepuya If when making a photograph one has to look through the viewfinder or at the camera’s screen, one’s face will be obscured. Everything that appears is happening in the work, and so it follows that many times the face will be obscured. More interestingly perhaps, the photographs made in the reflection of a mirror re-emphasise point perspective. Every photograph is in itself aligning the viewer’s gaze with that of the camera, which may or may not be that of the operator/artist. Whether or not the face is visible, the structure of looking is there.
AS The male body, as a focal point of the series, is explored through nudity and skin. Could you contextualise this gaze within your practice?
PS In 2005 when I began making portraits within the context of new friendships, relationships, and the formation of a gay/queer social space I wanted to be honest about centring desire as the core of the work. Regardless of the distinction between platonic or romantic relationships, I decided to photograph everyone as if they were a lover. This was a project called Beloved Object and Amorous Subject. Since then, intimacy has remained at the core of the work as projects have grown and changed conceptually, materially, spatially and performatively. Fast forward to more recent work under the Dark Room series – made mainly within my studio featuring portraiture, reflection, studio observations, abstractions and collage – they formally and conceptually play off of the queer/homoerotic dark room. The space behind the curtain and in front of the mirror. A site of social, sexual and communal gathering. Desire leads. This is an oblique way of talking about skin, as you asked, but I felt it necessary to explain the context for nudity.
But on to skin, when working in the mirror I realised that there was beauty in the accidental observation that the smudges on the mirror’s surface, traces left from portraits, my own hand, working in the studio, were only made visible when reflecting black. Could be black velvet, a Black body, my body, black objects, black material.