WHEN : 26th Oct – 24th Nov
WHERE : Queensland Centre of Photography
In Greek mythology, the Chimera was a fire-breathing creature formed from the bodies of a lioness, serpent, and goat. In biology, an individual whose cellular makeup carries two or more different sets of genetic material is also called a chimera. Humans, animals and plants can all exist in this way, with the human variety being the most deceptive. Entirely normal on outside appearance, they conceal the DNA of two different humans in their cells.
The chimera can be a metaphor for the self. We operate with various shades of physical, emotional, practical, and intellectual selves all sheltering within the one being. No single element can utterly describe the whole.
The portraits in this series are visual chimeras, pieced together from the physical features of others and myself. These likenesses are created to rouse a rethinking of the gaze; both mine toward myself, and that of the viewer. New bodily configurations force both the eye and mind to reassess what they encounter. Falsities are born. The lie of the image then reveals truths about anatomical anxieties, mental curiosities and wishes.
Image : Holly Granville-Edge ‘Wrong’ (2013)
