"égoportraits"
Acrylic on canvas. 70 cm X 100 cm / 27 inches X 39 inches
Stéphane Martineau
Berlin, July 2020

https://www.instagram.com/tv/Cbm0XuCA_2f/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

https://stephanemartineaupaintings.myportfolio.com/egoportraits-stephane-martineau

Prints are available here; 
https://www.eareyeam.com/to-hang-on-your-wall
http://www.eareyeam.com/to-be-wear

Stephane Martineau

"égoportrait"

Statement

Inspiration

The idea of this “Égoportraits” series is inspired by the evanescent nature of the selfie phenomenon and the origins of the internet, then called “ARPANET”, which was a system designed to survive a nuclear
holocaust.
Before the computer age, the passage of time was still visible as photos were printed on yellowing and curling paper, on which colors were fading.
Nowadays, photos are stocked into the cloud, preserved in their original condition, for eternity.

My work

I paint impermanence by representing the decrepitude of the material, the support, and the subject.
This decay is expressed by the texture treated in trompe-l'oeil, sometimes, integrated flat onto the support, sometimes, treated according to the volume of the subject in playful jousting of juxtapositions
between the representation of reality and reality itself.
My work opposes the instantaneous and the ephemeral youth with the passage and the outrage of time, symbolized by the canvas – the support - which will seem torn or disintegrated in some paintings, while the
matter/the painting itself as a medium will seem decrepit.
It is a contemporary approach to the "Vanitas" genre of the 17th century by transposing its context of the Thirty Years' War, and plague epidemics, to the war, presently raging in Europe, and the current unending global health crisis.
It expresses comparable fears and therefore, it intends to provoke a similar reflection concerning the time which passes frightfully quickly and, the fragility of life in general, except that self-portraiture - or selfies, which is the ultimate self-centered popular art form of the 21st century - is utilized instead of using skulls, candles, etc. which are the traditional elements of that genre, except for the use of mirrors or reflected images.

The awkward nature of selfies

Selfying has this particularity that the subject is not exactly photographing oneself, but rather photographing a mirror image of oneself, a representation generated by the screen of the phone.
Also, the distance between the lens and the screen of the smartphone is sufficient to create an absence in the subject’s gaze who is self-photographing as in a sort of premonitory act that would ensure that the subject would represent, not their being, but, rather, their coming disappearance in a material world that is only deteriorating.
The subject becomes another object like any other, perishable.

The selfies that inspire me the most are the ones taken with the additional use of a traditional mirror.
It reaches then an abysmal level of complexity and is possibly the paramount manifestation of this futile, unconscious/conscious human quest toward infinity and therefore eternal life, which uses, as a vehicle, the concept behind the creation of the internet at its origins.

Bio

I was born in Montréal, Québec.
I studied graphic design and fine arts.
Based in Berlin since the beginning of the 90s,
I work in the film and TV industry, and I travel from Berlin to Southeast Asia regularly to supervise or direct the animation of animated movies or TV series for 23 years.
My first supervision was in Kyiv, Ukraine from 1999 to 2000, and I started this series of paintings just after supervising in Beijing, China, some months before the worldwide Covid outbreak’s beginning, and then, I continued to paint amid the lockdown until and during this ignominious current war in Ukraine from my studio in Berlin.



This series is called "Egoportraits". The technique used is acrylic painting on canvas. The format of the paintings in this series is 70 cm X 100 cm / 27 inches / 39 inches
Prints are available here; 
https://www.eareyeam.com/to-hang-on-your-wall
http://www.eareyeam.com/to-be-wear

"égoportrait"

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