"FACE/OFF: a portrait of the artist"
2002-11-09 until 2003-01-05
Kettle's Yard Gallery
Cambridge, , UK United Kingdom

Face/Off is an exhibition of self-portraits, and brings together many works by some of the most interesting contemporary artists over the last few years. "There is, in my opinion, only one conclusion that may be drawn from the idea that the self is not given to us: we must create ourselves as works of art" – Michel Foucault

However, these are no conventional self-portraits. As the title suggests, there will be few, if any, faces in the exhibition. Rather, the works suggest alternative ways, perhaps more accurate, certainly more playful, by which an artist might portray him or herself today. In rejecting the face as the site of the self-portrait, the artist also rejects traditional ideas about who or what an artist is and how they should behave. In losing a face, the artist gains a new life. As Flaubert put it so gnomically, "Madame Bovary, c’est moi."

That the exhibition should be held in Cambridge, where Newton first de-centred Man, and the genome project unravelled him completely, seems entirely fitting.

From the conceptual to the visceral, the exhibition will contain sculpture, photography, painting, drawing, film and writing.

There will be new work by Jane Bustin, Kate Davis, Andy Goldsworthy, Peter Harris, Scott King, Paul Noble, George Shaw, Jemima Stehli, Stuart Taylor and Amikam Toren.

Other artists in the exhibition include Elina Brotherus, Tracey Emin, Tom Friedman, Emma Kay, Sean Landers, Michael Landy, Antonia Low, Sarah Lucas, Marc Quinn, Sam Taylor-Wood, Gavin Turk, and Gillian Wearing.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with a text by Mark Gisbourne.

IMAGE:
Elina Brotherus

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