The majority of work by Sally Dennison (a native New Yorker) is self-portraiture without the intent to accurately photograph herself, but rather to showcase gender identity issues using herself as a blank canvas that can transmogrify in many subtle directions. She works with digital manipulation with regards to challenging aesthetic paradigms and rejecting imposed standards of beauty for art as well as personal appearance. The blend between the fabric of her garments and the fabric of her surroundings indicates a similar blend between inner and outer ‘cultural fabric’ that can serve to define us as people. This blend and the deadpan poses in these works also offers a very visually striking series by an artist exhibiting giftedness of a high caliber.
In the artist’s words:
“The series ‘One and the Same’ was started in graduate school and is an ongoing project. Shooting the photographs has proven much easier than manipulating them and turning them into what I envision. A wig and myself are the essential ingredients, but they are transformed in post-production into something and someone else. I draw from that which shapes our aesthetic values. We ultimately are the ones to define our aesthetic values and I find it fascinating the intangible ideals we (mostly women) set for ourselves. I use “self-portraits” because I can identify so closely to the topic of beauty ideals, which has become so prevalent. As a young woman, I am constantly aware of my own image and have at one time or another believed and reinforced the idea that there is an attainable physical ideal, if you suffer enough for it.
This series is a rejection of cultural ideals that surround me on a daily basis. As much as it is concerned with aesthetic values this series deals heavily with digital manipulation. It has come to be that we have no idea when an image has been “photoshopped” and so we assume humans have the capability to be flawless. Each of the images is worked with through Photoshop so that every detail of my face and body has been restructured. Each of my “characters” or “identities” have lingering features in common, but it is only noticeable when viewed as a group.”
Shocking, disturbing, interesting, and beautiful…
