SHADI YOUSEFIAN

Self-portraits II series (2003)

In the Self-Portraits II series, Shadi continues to explore Identity as her subject matter and photography as her main medium but she combines her photographic prints with wood to create larger and more sculptural pieces.  This series consists of three large self-portraits, The Talking Eye, Duality, and Social Identity tryptic.  In the piece, The Talking Eye, Shadi has constructed her own face like a puzzle using photographic prints mounted on wood panels, but has switched the placement of her eyes and mouth, as if she is talking through her eyes.  

 

In Duality, as in her Self-portraits I series, Shadi is once again focusing on the issue of double identity.  In this piece she is showcasing herself sitting in a cross-legged meditative pose, holding her own head (metaphor for identity) in each hand.  The symmetrical composition of this self-portrait conveys the duality of identity that she is experiencing.

 

Constructed from wood panels and photographic prints, Social Identity tryptic showcases three life-sized self-portraits centering around the issue of identity and self image as they are affected by the society that one belongs to.  In this tryptic piece, each of the three self-portrait represents a different aspect of identity as influenced and shaped by the cultural expectations prevalent in different societies, from the covered Islamic dress code imposed by conservative and religious societies, to the “perfect” Barbie image idealized by more modern and secular societies.  Although one might get the impression that the self-portrait in which Shadi is wearing “normal” clothes (tank top, skirt and flower hair clip) would represent her true identity as an ordinary modern woman living in a western society, this “normal” look could be viewed as yet another dress code dictated by the mainstream standards.