Artist statement

 Louise Oliphant

Current conversations around Dana Shutz’s Open Caskett painting, exhibited at the 2017 Venice Biennial, has proven to be a contested debate in contemporary discourse.

The painting Open Caskett was recreated from a photograph of a black boy’s corpse, which many viewed to be ‘racially insensitive’ or even an ‘injustice to the black community’. The artwork holds significant historical context that references a catalyst to the black civil rights movement; that being the narrative of the lynching of a fourteen-year-old boy Emmitt Till in 1955. For a white woman to have depicted this culturally historic symbol, discussions surface, some in criticism of Shutz and her authority to create art that speaks for a culture different to her own. The implications of this open up the question of whether artists have authority to represent subjects that belong to a different culture. How should artists making portraits consider choosing their sitters and representing them in their paintings?

My work builds upon themes of identity, representation and culture through figurative portraits of the individuals around me. More specifically, it centres to explore and demonstrate how I as an artist (and other artists) can provide subjects/sitters with agency by speaking up for, rather than speaking on behalf of different cultural groups. I approach painting sociologically—how can I select and represent communities around me with an agenda of inclusion, respect and cultural recognition. Through closely worked, representational large-scale canvas painting I seek to give maximal agency to my subjects. I am negotiating how I can give space to the sitters rather than speaking over them.

I immerse myself in multiculturalism, where cultures are brought to a collective point, where we are no longer distinguished by race and therefore can be seen to belong to one [multi]cultural group (Vertovec, 2007). This brings focus to how cultural integration has allowed for ‘new’ cultural environments, including spaces such as food and takeaway outlets. Presenting artwork with a context I understand and experience, I am depicting the community I take part in. This avoids the possibility of appropriation but instead demonstrates a level of inclusivity and responsibility to choose subjects not based upon their race but the environment or social setting they are a part of.

By using oil paints, I place myself in a realism genre. Painting individuals with a high level of visual accuracy is important in conveying authentic character. Oil paint is a traditional media and thus potentially unconventional in terms of conveying contemporary cultural inclusion.

However, Kehinde Wiley, a young black painter, speaks of portraiture and the ‘field of power’. There is a certain strength that portraiture can give to a person, or particularly the sitter. Traditionally, to have a portrait painted of someone was an indication of their power or wealth. In our contemporary context I can make use of portraiture’s potential to give power or to provide empowerment the cultural group/s painted on the canvas.