Carrie Berglund
(she/her)
Recognition
We live in a time of ubiquitous images of ourselves, but most are produced within the shallow conformity imposed by social media—we simultaneously see too much and too little of one another. When Instagram filters, endlessly repeated TikTok fads, and nearly obligatory cosmetic procedures make everyone converge in a bland sameness, at least on the surface, examining and celebrating uniqueness and difference through portraiture acts as a subtle form of resistance. Likewise, the slow, deliberate nature of painting or drawing a portrait is the antithesis of the instant-gratification selfie.
Recognition considers self-perception versus how we are viewed by others, especially about characteristics like gender, sexuality, age, disability, and subculture. As a continuation of my interest in the human figure and portraiture, Recognition expresses these ideas through the exploration of various media, as well as symbolically revealing guarded aspects of identity per subjects’ choices of disclosure and investigating visual signifiers of an individual’s character.
The human face represents an exciting geometric terrain to explore, a challenge in finding the minute differences that produce a likeness, but also a chance to try to grasp and relate to what lies just beyond the thin shell of flesh and bone. I am fascinated by the idea that our interactions with others rely on a tacit, vague, and ultimately conjectural understanding that each face fronts a unique consciousness, impenetrably separate, but comparable to our own. Recognition is a series of portraits in mixed media, acrylic, and oil, highlighting the value of contemplative observation and empathy for the singular mind and identity of the individual.
