SVA's Jake Rowland

SVA's Jake Rowland

Courtesy of the artist

Jake Rowland, "Untitled" from “The River Rock Variations” (2005)

Courtesy of the artist

Jake Rowland, "Untitled" from “The River Rock Variations” (2005)

Send a letter to the Editor

Save to Del.icio.us Digg this

Artist’s Contact:

www.jakerowland.com

contact@jakerowland.com

Artist’s Statement:

In November 2003, I began creating images in which I digitally combined the portraits of several people to form individual fictional character portraits. I photographed members of my family with a medium-format camera, scanned the resulting negatives and created digital composites of their faces, combining people based on their relationships and resemblances. The resulting prints were fictional, indiscernible portraits, forged to represent the unseen ways that influence weaves its way through our lives.

In 2005, I created two more series of these fictional portraits. In one I decided to limit my subjects to two: my wife Allison and myself. I titled this series of combined portraits “The River Rock Variations” after the place where we first met. This work was initially inspired by the ways that one can lose sight of oneself in a marriage. I also returned to the subject of family, introducing the element of the passage of time into the work.

In 2006, I began a new series of combined portraits entitled “Perfect Strangers.” With these works I have widened the scope of my previous projects by deciding to photograph people from all walks of life, people I know or don't know, and combining them to form a group of fictional “strangers.” With this work I continue to address the crisis of fact vs. fiction in photography using one of the medium’s most time-tested, controversial and important forms—the documentary portrait—as my basis of inquiry.

Ultimately, through my work, I am blurring the boundaries of gender, individuality and personal identity in a process of exploration. The images describe real relationships between members of my family, my wife and myself, and the people, friends and strangers who surround me in my daily life.

At the same time these images subvert the basic utility of photography as a recorder of visual reality in the most fundamental way. It is creating a visual clash between fact and fiction, while blurring the boundaries between my art and life. My work serves as both a portal to my unconscious as well as an instrument of philosophical inquiry; it is my mode of exploring what it means to be human. My wish is to create work that allows the viewer a source of contemplation and a provocation to ontological engagement.

Artist’s Biography:

Jake Rowland’s artwork has been exhibited and published internationally. In France, he was one of the selected photographers for the 2005 International Festival of Fashion and Photography at Hyéres. In New York, his work was selected for the Art+Commerce Festival for Emerging Photographers in both 2004 and 2005. His photography has been exhibited at ClampArt and the Jen Bekman Gallery in New York City and published in PDN, Capricious, The Independent and The British Journal of Photography.

Rowland received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2006 and was a recipient of the Silas H. Rhodes Scholarship. He lives in New York City with his wife, Allison.

Image Descriptions:

1) In this image, I have combined the likeness of my wife and myself. The image represents, among many things, the mingling of identities that can take place in a marriage.

2) In this image, photographs of my wife Allison and I are again disassembled and then reconstructed to form a distinct fictional character. In creating these characters, I attempt to give them as distinct a personality as possible, to bring them to life, so to speak.

3) A third variation of my wife and me combined. The “River Rock Variations” on the one hand represents the union of two people, but can conversely be read more darkly as a metaphor for the loss of one's individuality to a relationship, the face of an alien, co-dependent personality made visible.

4) In these images, I have randomly combined the portraits of friends and acquaintances to form images of fictional strangers.

5) This image is another study for “Perfect Strangers” in which I have combined three people, two female, one male, into one fictional character portrait.