Self Portraits
by Leila Prosperi
“Self-portraiture is an instrument that allows me to define my own representation as a woman.”
“Daphne” (2024) - This image in which my torso transforms into the trunk of a tree was inspired by Daphne in the myth of Apollo and Daphne told by Ovid in the ‘Metamorphoses’. I was interested in what Alison Sharrock wrote in the paper Gender and Transformation: Reading, Women, and Gender in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. She argues that there is a disproportionate emphasis on women’s (as opposed to men’s) experience of metamorphosis, which make certain kinds of metamorphosis a negatively feminizing process.
The artworks depict a woman’s body merging with objects of the surrounding space, for example the flowers in my bedroom. These images express notion of de-materialisation as I try to become one with the picture space. Perhaps I am stepping into the picture space to escape its (and my) boundaries. I often insert myself in the frame as if an object of a still life, that is why there are many incorporations of flora and fauna. The compositions tend to nullify the body and loose its recognisable form as a human figure. It serves to affirm the idea of an ever evolving female identity exploring her surrounding space. These images try to represent women as identities in transformation, from the limits of domestic interiors towards the possibility of a space outside greater than landscape, the space of imagination.
“Stinky apple” (2024) - An image in which I enact multiple layers of transformations. I am an insect - a caterpillar,, an anthropomorphised apple with a mirror face withinaa rotten apple split in two. A playful image to reflects on identity and femininity through a grotesque symbolism. Cyanotype on red paper
The images are definitely informed by surrealist definitions of body and psyche, more important they reflect on themes of identity and femininity. In fact, I shoot my self-portraits within the interiors of domestic spaces. Historically the domestic space - the house is associated with female bodies, women and their ‘labour of love’ within the walls of their domestic spaces - which might instead feel like claustrophobic spaces. But escape can be found through imagination. Photography breaks the boundaries between the self and the environment, allowing the inside and outside to merge. The body becomes a portal to unlash imagination within a confining interior space and to create imaginative landscapes while exploring femininity through humorous forms. Domestic space transforms into a place where is possible to employ art for a playful inquisition into the personal psyche. Emily Dickinson, Dorothea Tanning, Francesca Woodman, Deborah Turbeville, Louise Bourgeois are artists that inform my practice.
“Plums” (2023) - In this image plums overlap with my tights. It was inspired by Girl with weed by Francesca Woodman. In one of the frames you can see her naked legs rended in a striking blue. I wanted to recreate my own.
“Forget-me-nots” (2024) - A ghostly image in which my body flees the picture space or melts with it. Butterflies are a metaphor for freedom and transformation.
“Ventriculi” (2024) — The human heart with its specular structure becomes a The human heart with its specular structure becomes a metaphor to discuss about duality and identity. Two different metaphor to discuss about duality and identity. Two different sides that compliments each other make one body and soul. sides that compliments each other make one body and soul. There might be even more than two. There might be even more than two.
