Cold Comfort Drama Queen
> This is the last of 4 self portraits I took with the help of Holly Birtles at the end of a day working on filming and still photos for the Wild Caviar video and print series. All 4 self-portraits are about my love/hate relationship with paint. They are uncomfortable but the yearning for this sort of work had been with me for years before I found the courage to do it for a camera. I knew Holly Birtles and her work from the Slade where we were in the same tutorial group. In her own practice she also seems to deal with a certain discomfort around the body juxtaposed with painted props. > The paint skin came from peeling off a painting I had made on a large pane of glass, a method I have worked with for other projects and which featured in the Wild Caviar video. I love that there is nothing but the very thin paint, without support and that the many layers that make the image become so fragile and pathetic. The skin is really silky and responsive, very sensual. This feels like the final image from the collaboration with Holly Birtles to produce Wild Caviar. Sumptuous and sensual but also ridiculously theatrical. And the physical experience was utterly unpleasant: cold and slimy.
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