Portraits Y/Z

Gallery Hours

Sa-M: 12-6 pm; Tu-F: by appointment

Barrie Jones’s latest work presents unsettled, fluid depictions of young people recorded over time, challenging the notion of a single moment of insight provided by the traditional still portrait. In Portraits Y/Z, the “portrait moment” of an in-studio conventional photo portrait is extended as an animated video study.

These animated portrait triptychs consist of three 90-second studies running simultaneously on screen with no sound. Each subject directly addresses the camera while reacting physically and emotionally, in their own way, to the same circumstances. The subjects’ actions, while natural over a long period of time, have become exaggerated and highlighted in this work. In response to the camera’s scrutiny, the subjects’ changing movements and expressions—sometimes subtle, sometimes overt, sometimes restrained—suggest a range of feelings from anxiousness and nervousness to tranquility and resignation.

This ongoing video project is related to a number of photography projects Jones has produced over the years, using portraits as the structure to examine aspects of group and individual identity in the context of the cultural phenomena and the personal behavior of the times.