Double Self-Portrait

Krzysztof Wodiczko’s Double Self-Portrait extends beyond the conventional schema of the genre of an artist’s self-portrait. Wodiczko makes no symbolic contact with the viewer, in contrast to a solution frequently opted for by artists who, when painting their own likenesses, choose to “look” at their imaginary audience. On the other hand, he does not cross the borderline of imaging traditions to the extent found in works of authors of photographic multiple portraits using optical tricks. In one of the images, Wodiczko is shown with his head thrown back, in another he is looking downwards – he avoids showing his face or looking ahead, thus creating a portrait of his inner self with inklings of psychological and sociological analysis.

Wodiczko made his self-image in a variety of versions. In his Autoportret narożny [Corner Self-Portrait], showing the artist vertically blended into walls in a room corner, each of his eyes can “see” only the other half of his own face. Similarly, in the Autoportret z lustrem [Self-Portrait with a Mirror], the only thing the artist theoretically “sees” is his own reflection. Both portraits are a result of conscientious self-focus – the artist has shown himself as not noticing (or incapable of noticing) anything but his own creative self and the self’s inner quandaries.

Wodiczko’s conceptual work translates into the question of the role of an artist and the social and ethical dimensions of his work. As shown in his later pieces, with their focal point of social and political analysis, that question was a watershed for the author of the Double Self-Portrait. Wodiczko speaks out against individualism, showing the incapability to notice anything but the self as a state of suspension. Andrzej Turowski interprets Self-Portraits as an act of abandoning egocentrism based solely on artistic self-reference and on placing oneself at the centre of one’s creation. Wodiczko’s artistic concept involves a continual vision of the social responsibility shouldered by the artist. In his art, Barthes’ “death of the author” is a departure from the analysis of the creative self embedded in faith in the causal power of art and belief in the need for involved commentary.

Izabela Kopania

translated from Polish by Aleksandra Sobczak