Self Portrait

Here at Oxbow we like to ask big, juicy questions. Essential questions. These questions provide entry into research, and the impetus to begin art making. One question that gets asked a lot, perhaps to the point of exhaustion, is "Who am I?" It starts before a student even arrives on campus -- as part of the application process, prospective students are asked to create a self portrait in any medium. That's it -- no other guidelines are specified. It's an assignment that requires the asking of other (sub-essential, you might say) questions: How do I present myself to the world? How do I want to present myself to the world? What are my passions? What role do I play in my family / my school / my community? And so on. 

The theme of "self portrait" is revisited several times throughout the semester, both in art projects and in humanities coursework. In the New Media studio, students in the Narrative unit were at it again, creating short films in response to these questions: Who am I? Where have I been? Where am I now? Students were asked to think of their film as a "poetic interpretation of the self," and to use a combination of moving images, still photographs, sound, and text to create the narrative of their self portrait. Emily Rose (from Massachusetts), Vasaris (from Illinois), Lesedi (from Texas), and Stanley (from Massachusetts) each took a very different approach to the assignment, and have generously offered to share their films. 

EMILY ROSE

VASARIS

LESEDI

STANLEY