Self Portrait is a simple text replacement glitch. The image was opened as text in an editor and specific repeating text elements that appear randomly generated to the human eye were replaced with the artist’s name, causing the image to break and fracture in surprising ways.
The data of the image is now intrinsically part of the portrait, a cautionary reminder that we accept imitations of images in which data changes in imperceptible or occulted ways while still presenting us the same image. A print of this image will not contain this data; a new save of a jpeg will not contain the data; editing it in any way will change the data while still leaving the visual simulation. Each copy is experienced as loss. With each reproduction of his own image, the artist absents himself.
Visually, the artist is obscured and defined only in profile against the New York City skyline. A second subject appears in the reflection of the artist’s gaze. By viewing her through a mirror, the artist can only look upon her through a fractured copy of her appearance, much like we experience the artist himself.
Artifacts are allowed to freely roam the image, emphasizing the portrait’s medium—a jpeg. The medium through which we project ourselves into digital space alters us in an eternity of infinite reproducibility.
