My practice explores the psychological push and pull of our inner being. Working predominantly in photography and self-portraiture, I create private performances in which multiples of myself interact with each other, echoing sections of ourselves caught in interaction with each other.
These figures and their actions, captured in shifting landscapes, reference building tension and the edges of flight or fight as snippets of a larger yet ambiguous narrative. Sometimes these figures seem caught in the chaos together, other times it becomes difficult to know if they are helping or hurting these parts of the same being.
The artworks examine the psychological self through a physical state of being as I respond to the environment and these parts of myself. As self-portraits, the figures are me and not me, they break away transforming into their own, traversing female identity, power shifts and psychological states of being in these loose narratives exploring the very edge of physical and psychological being.
Web: http://www.emilyportmann.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emilyportmann/
Email: emilyportmann@gmail.com