Journey of Self Identity – Part Three

The third work I created about my identity stretched my artistic boundaries as I chose to work in areas I had until this work had little experience in. The piece I created began with mixed media collage but was ultimately a conceptual and experiential performative work of art. Aesthetics were in play here at the onset, but the process and overall concept was the driving force behind and within the work.

Mapping Self: Past, Present & Future is a mixed media collage map and conceptual work of art. The physical piece of work measuring approximately three by six feet is a visual representation of my sense of self in relation to my past, present and future identities. It was exhibited as part of an art show in early 2012 at Goldsmiths College in London. Following the show, the collage was burned to conceptually represent the temporality of self identity constructs honouring the idea that our sense of a past, present and future self is only true for a current moment in time and will change as often as we do.

The contour of the collage map was constructed by combining the outlines of land masses from places I'm from, have lived, and plan to live in the future including Northern Ireland, Southern Italy, New York, Massachusetts and California. The collage imagery within the map includes writing, cloth, paint, photos, copies of identification documents of my ancestors and other ephemera which represent the many facets of who I have been (and where I'm from), who I am and who I hope to be. Burning the finished piece honours that the work is about concept and process and challenges me as an artist to accept that art is worth more than its aesthetic. Through this act of art destruction, representing the temporality of this self construct, I release my attachments to stories of my past, to ideas of my present self and to the hopes of my future and open myself up to the possibilities of constructing new identities. 

This work is part of a series of works created in 2011-2012 that explore issues surrounding identity. Also in the series is the visual/textual poem “I look at You” and the “I Am / Am Not My Things Are Not Me” event which explored the destruction of my belongings by flood due to hurricane. Each work has allowed me look critically at the constructs of self I create. Here I ask:

“What does stopping to look at my sense of identity 
in relation to my past and present 
reveal about who I am and who I want to be?”