ARTIST STATEMENT
The value of our accomplishments are redefined by insidious media messaging which promotes success as the impersonal achievement of stable wealth. Glorification of rich social figures advertises a one-dimensional version of success: affluence. ‘I Won?’, draws upon cultural expectations to achieve financial wealth. Juxtaposing symbols create a narrative of wealth and destruction, confidence and vulnerability, victimisation and triumph, confronting the audience with a paradoxical portrayal of ‘success’ tainted by danger. The deidentification of the subject encourages empathy, prompting the consideration of whether she should be defined as successful in her affluent, yet sinister, setting. So, what is success to you?
ARTWORK PROCESS
The narrative of each diptych was created through the construction of domestic settings with a neutral backdrop, enabling symbolic features and the figure to be foregrounded. Lighting created highlights and shadows which were accentuated and intensified in photoshop by increasing contrast. Furthermore, the colour range of each photograph was digitally manipulated, as in each image one colour was repeated to enhance contrast and increase the dramatism of the photographs.
