[spectre] Send in your scans and be a part of the Re-portrait Yourself project

Mon May 9 01:01:28 CEST 2011

you are numbered
you are product
you are doomed

PROXY Gallery
http://cart.iabrace.com
http://bit.ly/proxygallery

now showing: Profile Portraits (the asia-other collection)
build your own exhibition + catalogue
now accepting commissions for encaustic profile paintings on 12x12" panels,=
 any
subject!

PROXY GALLERY (now showing: the asia-other collection): Select and assemble=
 your own
custom art exhibition with catalogue! Ultra hi-res art files, suitable for
printing, are delivered in one custom pdf/ebook. Thousands of enlarged (cus=
tom,
patented algorithms) and enhanced photographs (now, likely several hundred
thousands, soon over a million,) mostly low-res cellphone, web-cam, and low=
-end
digital camera self-portraits (self-packaging), culled from dating/social
websites -- as you might expect, there is some explicit content (more than =
is
permitted here unfortunately: you really should see them all, but it probab=
ly
makes little difference) -- fascinating and occasionally disturbing. I've d=
ecided
to also add a set of painting-filters -- this was good, as it enabled a
'recovery' of many more worthwhile images, and also clouded any possible
erogenous/irregular corporate claims, but the project now extends beyond my
life-span. I could easily make small paintings from these images but who su=
pport
that activity? Let's see: commissioned portrait paintings, I'm thinking 12"
square encaustic on panels, from your choice of subject are available for
$15,000US. It's interesting to find the balance/inertia point between the l=
ook of
photo and painting, and it speaks to the current social/heroic condition! O=
ften
it makes faces look squinty so it's necessary to 'bring-back' facial aspect=
s. The
display images on this site are but quick approximations of the larger art =
files
which simply don't scale -- kinda like paint on canvas. Another advantage o=
f the
painting filters is that they drastically reduce the file sizes and make it
well-nigh impossible for someone to covertly res-up these display images fo=
r
printing. It's quite incredible to realize that many of these pictures were=
 only
3-4K or so when I started to work on them. You may realize that this is not=
 the
first time I've collected anonymous found-public imagery: notably dumpster-=
diving
(bicycling with backpack at midnight,) at photofinishers' in the 70's. And =
of
course, there's the "Insatiable Abstraction Engine" -- collections from
newsgroups. [http://bbrace.net/insatiable-abstraction.html] But come to thi=
nk it,
nearly all my work involves repeated multiples or collections of imagery. M=
y new
friends. Whenever possible I retained any color casts, cropping and lightin=
g. The
portraits are actually very considered, sometimes selections made/altered m=
erely
to obscure the identity that they wished to presumably portray initially.
Sunglasses are a popular ruse, as are close-ups of cleavage, butts, tattoos=
, feet
and groins. (Curiously, I've yet to see a picture of hands... ok, now I hav=
e:
some intricate fingernails and the love/hate finger-tats.) Many
feature-obilerating camera-flash-portraits in the bathroom mirror. Many of
course, occur in and around motorized vehicles. Only one (so far) in a groc=
ery
store. And some, but surprisingly few, are filched from somewhere online, b=
ut
this must be a risky choice in the event of an 'actual encounter.' How much
introductory information/description do you want to put out there to begin =
with?
There are some very creative, even artful, solutions to this dilemma. Vario=
us
select groups of portraits are included in each PDF 500-page ebook/catalogu=
e for
$250 (sorry about the price but it was a hellish amount of work and I guara=
ntee
you won't be disappointed or YMB), and can be ordered directly. The images
contain sufficient resolution to print them out on letter-size/A4 paper (or
coffee-mugs, keychains, magnets, photo-stamps, cards, calendars, tea-towels=
=2E..),
for an instant exhibition. Use my verified Paypal account to have the DVD
delivered at no charge: [bbrace at eskimo.com;
http://bradbrace.net/buy-into.html] Or, even better, assemble your own
catalogue/exhibition at the Proxy Gallery storefront [http://cart.iabrace.c=
om/].
Art files are only $1 each. My new friends. Having been recently kicked-off
Facebook (there was an anonymous report of a depicted nipple!), and losing =
5,000
appreciative friends - it was the perfect place to host a social-media
profile-portrait-collection, I've decided to also open an online storefront=
 where
individual high-res files will sell for only $1/each. [http://cart.iabrace.=
com]
How hypocritical to object to profile pictures that were on FB to begin wit=
h; but
it's fun to now position coloured boxes and bars over n=A5pples, c=A5nts an=
d c=A5cks. How
idiotic is that? The prints of course required different custom algorithms
and some masterful retouching -- they look great! Technically given the
incredibly diverse range of imagery it was difficult to make them all
equally legible; despite a variety of intricate processing directives, the
scripts would inevitably crash or be unable to render a decent image. These
were handled individually as were the painting-filters. If I receive a
reasonable number of orders, I'll offer additional states of the union or
countries... but California had to be the place to begin. Sure to be a
collectors' (socio-anthropologists') item! An amazing and compelling,
collective portrait! The interspersed military/gangster imagery (or maybe
something else), also introduces a new spin on the hopes for this already
tenuous social-media culture. I've had to organize/sub-divide these in some
fashion, so by state/country seems to be the prevailing approach. And given
how often workers are compelled to move around, there's more of a local
difference in cultural self-perception, body language, and social-sexual
proclivity than you might expect. It really is a perhaps overlooked
(overly-present), socially significant era when a massive proportion of the
population is able to individually exorcise their self-imagery instead of
being routinely dependent on existing systematized systems of portraiture
and presentation -- which is not to say that it's entirely free from
stylistic-cultural-corporate constraints and codification (and why, for now
at least, I left the imagery in a nearly random arrangement), but the
individual, probably for the first time ever, is seen freely negotiating a
shifting porous skein of varied reception... well, something like that...

PROXY Gallery
http://cart.iabrace.com
http://bit.ly/proxygallery

now showing: Profile Portraits (the asia-other collection)
build your own exhibition + catalogue
now accepting commissions for encaustic profile paintings on 12x12" panels,=
 any
subject!

/:b

On Sun, 8 May 2011, Waldemar Pranckiewicz wrote:

> I do a project based on re-photographing portraits called /Re-portrait
> Yourself./ The Re-portrait Yourself project focuses on portraits of
> yourself taken by others (or by an automated photo booth) which have
> then been used to represent you in your official documents. First stage
> of the project will be shown on 14th May in a small project space in
> East London.
>
> You are very welcome to contribute *by sending a scan of your photo from
> the following sources:  passport, ID cards, driving license or diploma
> or any kind of certificate. Participants will receive via an e-mail a
> photo documenting their contribution to the work. Please e-mail your
> scans to: czas at free.art.pl
> Low quality images are accepted.*
>
> More info about the project and selected images:
> http://www.prancek.superhost.pl/fatal/?p=3D213
>
>
> ______________________________________________
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>