Naomie Sunner
“Through the use of digital manipulation I am able to create multiple self-portraits where I play the role of various characters within the one image. These multifaceted self-portraits become a platform for subverting dominant paradigms where the interaction of these characters between each other and the viewer narrates a story.
Through digitally-manipulated photographs any role can be assumed. The Post Nature series saw task-oriented biochemists in a sterile field and a nuclear family eating supersized corn. During a residency at St Vincents Hospital in Melbourne the body of work Code Purple saw me perform the role of nurse, nun, doctor and patient. The homogenous subjects assumed power over and amongst one another through dress, posture, expression and interaction. Give up today…(for the sake of tomorrow) saw a clan of corporate high flyers bound by ergonomic chairs, computers and folios. The characters have been extracted from their corporate environment and placed into the Australian wilderness yet earnestly they strive on, oblivious to their surrounds.
Although my work is self-portrait, I am the subject and the viewer. I am gazed upon yet am also the owner of the gaze. One is submissive to the camera and the other creates how the viewer perceives the subject. By using myself as the subject I am able to strip back the individual identity of each character and concentrate on each character's actions, status, profession and gender.
I have chosen a varied platform for exhibiting my work. I have used full-size billboards on arterial roads, the Midsumma Festival, and contemporary art galleries. The result is a broad spectrum infiltration of visual outlets competing in scale with corporate advertising campaigns.”
(Naomi Sunner 2006)
