Artist Statement
Like the tide, identity has an ebb and flow. It pauses for a time then changes course; perhaps generating a wave or even a riptide. Over a human lifetime, a person may take on multiple identities such as child, spouse, friend, empty-nester, or caregiver. Identities are performed as needed, and will shift over time. An identity transition may cause a feeling of loss or longing for past times or comforting spaces.
My body of work, Now and then and back again, is an autobiographical narrative underpinned by emotions that may occur with transitions of identity. I investigate memory, place, time and the Other self within by returning to the past family photo album in search of clues to the foundations of self-identity. I project vernacular family photographs into current or past spaces to construct a new narrative of identity through portraiture.
As portraiture often becomes a performance in front of the camera, these new portraits explore the performance of Self and the possibility of resolving an identity shift, with a realization that the past informs our identity but does not define it.
~~Lisa M. Sibley