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Arts & Communication Self-portraits as masks

individual lives or emotions. The repetitive portrayal of These questions are raised by the numerous
subjects erodes the expression of complex emotional states, photographic self-portraits in which the artist wears her
rendering personality to be subordinate to the seriality of own mask, usually in an idealized version or at a different
its media representation. age from that at the time of the work’s creation, as in
As Jameson claims about the lack of depth of Self-Portrait (2000), Self-Portrait at 27 Years Old (2012),
postmodern pictures, Wearing’s self-portraits do not and Rock’n’roll 70 (2015). As the title of one of these self-
offer any element of the artist’s personality or emotions. portraits suggests, namely Me as Mask (2013), the artist
The expressiveness of the portraits is abandoned in favor seems not so much to be representing herself with (or in)
of a simulated representation where the artist’s face itself a mask but rather as a mask. This concept of “presenting
becomes a mask, behind which we are unable to discern as” offers a possible key to deciphering the nature of the
anything. subject behind the silicone faces. 34
Another pertinent key to interpreting this subject Belting argues that the mask is a symbolic
is provided by Kenneth Gergen, an exponent of social representation of a face rather than a replica of a real one.
constructionism and contemporary social psychology. He describes it as “an excarnation of the face, in the sense
According to him, the fragmentation of the idea of the self that it “disembodies” a face to “embody” someone else.
coincides with the development of multiple, disconnected By contrast, one may speak of an incarnation of changing
relationships that lead the individual to play different masks, which our face constantly produces in expressive
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roles, corroding the concept of the “authentic self.” gestures.” According to Belting, the face and the mask
29
His position draws on one of the classic sociological share the same iconic character, allowing for one image to
studies with which Wearing is familiar, namely Erving transform into the other. Wearing’s use of the mask aligns
Goffman’s The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, in with Belting’s interpretation as it enables the creation
which Goffman argues that the concept of self is formed of new images by transitioning between identities and
based on relationships with others and the social context constantly “disembodying” one’s own face.
in which we are embedded. 30,31 Gergen notes that the This modus operandi seems to have taken a surprising
postmodern self, which can move freely from one turn in a series of self-portraits taken by Wearing in 2020
image to another, evolves in response to external stimuli during the isolation imposed in response to the COVID-
conveyed by other identities. Instead of the personal 19 pandemic. Entitled Lockdown, the series provides
identity core of modernity, it is inhabited by images of the an account of the time spent in confinement, exploring
outside world and the people around it, until it becomes the artist’s own image in a solitary configuration that
a relational self. 32 – unexpectedly – does not involve the use of a mask.
In line with these assumptions, Wearing’s works stage a Interestingly, Wearing’s decision to paint herself without a
constantly changing personality that allows her to present mask came at a time when the global pandemic had forced
herself in different forms, a process confirmed by the everyone to wear surgical masks as protection against the
following statement by the artist herself: “I believe that virus. At a time when people had become accustomed to
identity is fluid and it’s what you absorb and internalize not seeing each other’s faces, Wearing made the opposite
from the world around you. But what you reveal of yourself choice by painting her own features. In addition to the
to the world is how other people define your identity.” 33 paintings, a sculptural installation is included in the series,
but the paintings are the most prominent works. The series
4. The disembodiment of the face marks Wearing’s return to the medium of painting more
In light of the observations made in previous sections, it than 30 years after her last paintings. The poses and facial
is relevant to note that in Family Album, Wearing not only expressions seem to mimic the possible states of mind
plays the roles of family members but also reproduces two experienced in a context of separation and seclusion as if
photographs of herself at the ages of 3 and 17 years. In it were a theatrical performance in which the artist plays
particular, in Self-Portrait at 3 Years Old (2004), the artist different characters and roles. Although she paints herself
exercises her adult gaze through a child’s mask. The work without disguises or references to other ages, the reference
reflects on the passage of time, questions the truthfulness of to the mask is also subtle in these works. In one of the
the photographic medium, and raises multiple questions, portraits, the outline of the face appears to be marked by
such as the following: Which of the two images more the edges of what is effectively a mask, beneath which the
authentically reflects the artist’s identity? Is the Gillian artist’s eyes stand out (Figure 3). Thus, even when the artist
Wearing of the new self-portrait the same as that in the appears to be portraying her true self, her identity seems to
original photograph? shift from one painting to the next: in the proliferation of

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Volume 3 Issue 2 (2025) olume 3 Issue 2 (2025) 5 5 doi: 10.36922/ac.338510.36922/ac.3385