The Greeks told the story of Narcissus, the proud hunter who fell in love with his own reflection. They understood our very human tendency for self-obsession, that our favorite subject was usually the one staring back at us in the mirror. And with today’s technology – smartphones and social media – our never-ending fascination with ourselves is but a mere arm’s length away.
by Nancy Cooper
It’s hard to avoid the selfie these days. They’re everywhere you look: on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, the news. And, last October, I brought the selfie to the Graduate School’s first 3-Minute Thesis Competition.
It was a chance for students to sum up months of work and research into brief presentations – essentially elevator speeches explaining their work and why anyone should be interested. In the midst of mini-presentations on marine biology and historical literature reviews, I probably prompted a few eye rolls and chuckles when my topic appeared on the projector screen: “The Self-Portrait in the Age of the Selfie.”
I had one PowerPoint slide and three minutes to explain.
The selfie of Beyonce and Jay-Z with the Mona Lisa seemed like the perfect choice for a visual (if you haven’t seen this photograph, please stop reading now and Google it immediately), but – for copyright reasons – I opted to create a few fictional Instagram photos, Photoshopped images of what Jan Van Eyck and Frida Kahlo might have posted to caption and share their own self-portraits back in the day.
As the clock counted down my three minutes, I shared some of the most captivating facts I could about the history of the self-portrait, and explained how self-portraiture remains relevant through our culture’s obsession with selfies. For instance, in 2013, Oxford Dictionaries named selfie the word of the year. According to Google, more than 93 million selfies are taken every day. While the selfie trend may be somewhat new, thanks to modern technology and social media, individuals have been creating portraits of themselves for centuries, dating back to 1300 BC, when a slave of Pharaoh Akhenaten carved himself in stone. From the first formal self-portrait by Van Eyck in 1433 to more recently created works by artists such as Pablo Picasso and Kahlo, self-portraits have been continually created for thousands of years. With this short art history lesson in mind, self-portraiture becomes somewhat interesting and relatable to our selfie-obsessed culture.
These days, the obsession starts early. Take, for example, the second graders I taught art to last summer, who begged me to take selfies with them every week. Interestingly, however, when the day came for the students to draw self-portraits, most of them just stared at their blank papers or dramatically rolled around on the floor. The same thing happened when I asked adult friends to draw self-portraits: Shock and horror ensued. I can’t honestly say I haven’t felt the same unease toward creating my own self-portrait. As an undergraduate student, I faced the dreaded self-portrait assignment at the end of my Drawing II course. Unable to make my eyes match one another at the end of an all-nighter in the studio, I took a little (too much) artistic freedom and added an eye patch to one eye. I then drew a fabulous pirate ship scene in the background to justify this decision. All this to say that, even for an artist, the task of drawing one’s self can be daunting. Take a look at my social media presence, however, and more than a few selfies can be found, I’m sure.
So in the age of the selfie, why are we so shy to create our self-portraits? Do we lack the skills to recreate ourselves on a page? Maybe, but who even cares?
Self-portraits create a unique opportunity for us to express ourselves, our hopes, our fears and our innermost thoughts – things that often can’t be easily captured in a photograph. Details like the colors we use, the size and speed of our mark-making and the expressions on our faces say a lot about who we are and how we feel about ourselves. Regardless of skill, our self-portraits can be incredibly powerful and revealing.
This is where the Charleston Self-Portrait Project comes in. By facilitating portrait-making events throughout the city and encouraging members of the entire community to create self-portraits, we’re trying to see how Charlestonians view themselves and choose to express themselves. The resulting collection of self-portraits will create a portrait of Charleston, illustrating both who we are as individuals and as a community. And hopefully we’ll also learn why individuals are often hesitant to create and share their self-portraits from the process. Already some of the project’s most hesitant participants have created the most intriguing and powerful self-portraits.
Portrait-making events have been held all year at local organizations, businesses and public spaces, with an intentional effort to reach diverse groups within the Charleston community. Sponsored in part by the Lowcountry Quarterly Arts Grant – a subgranting program of the National Endowment for the Arts, S.C. Arts Commission and Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina – the project is free for all participants. With event hosts such as Redux Contemporary Art Center, the Charleston Area Senior Center, the Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry and the City of Charleston’s Parks and Recreation Department, we have attracted a vibrant, varied crowd of participants. Our partnership with Be a Mentor has also helped this project reach schoolchildren, as those volunteers bring the project to their mentoring opportunities at local schools. With the feedback I’ve received thus far, I’m excited to see where the project will lead.
While the Charleston Self-Portrait Project isn’t your typical graduate research project, it’s the perfect combination of arts management and public administration, and has already provided me with a wealth of hands-on learning opportunities.
And perhaps it will provide some credence to the selfies that have taken over our social media and our culture – because, let’s face it, selfies aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
– Nancy Cooper is a graduate student in the College’s Master of Public Administration Program.
– Illustration by Jay Fletcher
For details, event calendar and portrait gallery,visit charlestonselfportraitproject.com,or follow the project on Facebook and Instagram (@chs_selfportrait).
