Jeanette Doyle
b. 1969, Ireland
Me is Enough has looked to images as primary sources, making paintings from digital snaps she had stored on her desktop. Every time she opened the folder in which they were stored, Doyle found something compelling about the images and decided to paint them to try to discover what that thing might be. The piece is derived out of an interest in producing work which does not need explanation, yet encourages contemplation. The subjects of these portraits (or ‘unportraits’, as described by Francis McKee) project an image, the reflection of which they cannot see. When painted, these selves, projected for an instant, are slowed down and rendered with the suggested permanence of oil paint, their flatness or ‘faceness’ reflecting the flatness of the photograph. When painted, Doyle discovered that what she found compelling about the images was the way that all the subjects seemed to be casting an image of their imagined selves, and so while apparently relaxed in a social situation, they were not comfortable presenting an unmarshalled face.
(Text: OPEN e v + a catalogue, 2005)
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