| I produce my self-portraits to expose myself, but reveal nothing. The work is untitled and so, exists as a subjective art form. Laced with emotional angst. I live—within them, in a trance. Interrupted, only by divine intuition. Familiar surroundings warped to a dream like state representing the unknown. The perception of the viewer is not real, but what can only be interoperated as truth. The storm of life unavoidably and blatantly presented by the artist as a portrait of himself. The ecstasy or agony portrayed within the images is up for discussion, while the expression itself is inescapable. The character known as self, within my portraits, is there only to prophesize the future or lament in the past. I like to see myself as a work unfinished. Undefined. This, I know, is a luxury… |  |
Peter Breen
I produce my self-portraits to expose myself, but reveal nothing.
The work is untitled and so, exists as a subjective art form.
Laced with emotional angst.
I live—within them, in a trance. Interrupted, only by divine intuition. Familiar surroundings warped to a dream like state representing the unknown.
The perception of the viewer is not real, but what can only be interoperated as truth. The storm of life unavoidably and blatantly presented by the artist as a portrait of himself.
The ecstasy or agony portrayed within the images is up for discussion, while the expression itself is inescapable. The character known as self, within my portraits, is there only to prophesize the future or lament in the past.
I like to see myself as a work unfinished. Undefined. This, I know, is a luxury…
So in the words of some of my idols:
“I believe in intoxication, in ecstasy, and when ordinary life shackles me, I escape, one way or another.”—Anaïs Nin
“One role of the artist is akin to that of a shaman; bringing things from other realms for the benefit of all; acting as a conduit to the unconscious world, to racial memory, to a psychic pool shared by all sentient beings.”—Wendy Mukluk
“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”—Pablo Picasso
The work I produce is very ritualistic. I find it very important to close communications of all sorts whilst in the deep rapture of production. Locking myself away or finding somewhere isolated, always performing my ceremony alone.
I scrub myself clean.
Forget myself.
Stare in the mirror—focus on a blank slate and build.
Build with my fashion shoot rituals…
I build a set to exist in, the lighting carefully monitored.
I trust my camera to witness the event. Using a customized timer function, which is always pre-set.
I apply the make up, style my hair, dress/undress as I see fit, getting deeper into the unknown.
I pray.
It can take a week to plan and execute a single portrait: planning the light, working out my point of departure, channeling the character, so that when I get to the moment of shooting myself, I can forget about everything. Forget myself. Forget the world. Every last detail is staged and rehearsed, the only spontaneity being the ability to tap into the divine power of the universe, channel my unconscious mind, use the time as a sacred passage, become a shaman to myself, become a world within this world, but most of all, will that spirit onto film.
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