Likeness (Modern), 2010

Basel 2018
Likeness (Modern)

Georg Kargl Fine Arts

Sculpture
Plaster, Clay, Celluslose paper and gum, Plastic, Acrylic Gel Medium, Bone Black Acrylic Paint, Hand Blown Glass eyes, synthetic hair and urethane eyes
67.3 x 22.9 x 33.0 （厘米）
26.5 x 9.0 x 13.0 （吋）
The works of the American artist and filmmaker Carter (b. 1970 Norwich, Conneticut) is best known for his artwork that spans various media from painting and photography to sculptural installations, film and video. His sculpural art piece - normally arranged in installations - is now exhibited as an unique art piece. On the first sight it displays a general reference to the common tradition of portrait making, but on the second sight Carter plays with the image of likeness, deconstructs and revises the portrait by covering it in a glossy resin that seems to freeze it. In addition he is adding a frightening as well as a realistic touch to the sculpture by implementing eerily realistic prosthetic glass eyes and it seams, that - in reference to the titel - it may also represents an altered ego of the artist himself. Like an arrested moment in a developing polaroid or in a daguerreotype in the making, these figures beg for identities as they appear to be in a perpetual state of becoming. Existing in an undetermined time, with history and sexuality in flux, the figures are given the impossible task of being both self-portraits and portraits of anonymous figures. In doing so its characteristic is to identify, but a prominent trait of Carter's gesture covers up as much as it reveals.