Colin Alexander
My painting practice lately seems to address the notion of
theatricality in an art production operation, but is ultimately
one facet of a larger, general practice. While the images always
rely on the tool of representation (often of the mass-produced
objects/ephemera that have woven themselves into the most
intimate moments that might now constitute a personal history),
the varying levels of commitment to depiction (or the sometimes
stacked layers of imagery) nod toward a sense of self that
frequently wavers.
As “persona,” I easily become “demographic,” and the paintings
seem to reflect that in the way that I can depict my role through
the objects that I both rely on and identify with. In this creative
process, I impersonate myself as “maker” in the way that I
impersonate myself as “persona” in my social interactions,
my day job, in a sort of all-the-time performance. Media that
similarly discuss this phenomenon might be Jean Baudrillard’s
discussions of simulacra as well as Sam Weisman’s 1997 film
George of the Jungle.