Duty

2022
Acrylic and pencil on linen canvas
46 x 105 x 5 cm
RT4A2207
Courtesy of the artist

This piece arose from the requirement of a profile picture for artists on the Apple Music platform, which mandates a centred human face devoid of typefaces or promotional contents, leading to the painting’s title and written text: Duty. Naturally, the Self-Portrait in Profile by Marcel Duchamp (1957) sprang to mind as the point of reference for a profile picture.

The final rendition retained only the backdrop sky from a portrait taken by a loved one, captured beside a pool at a palace on the French Riviera. The term Duty juxtaposes this ‘idyllic’ imagery with the obligation to produce images that reveal oneself through portraying a human figure and not just using any image or representation. Here, the choice was a portrait in negative, defined by what surrounds it (a sky).

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