Jimmie Durham
image: (c) Maria Thereza Alves
Self-Portrait, 1987
Sculpture
, 173 x 87 x 29 cm
canvas, wood, paint, feather, shell, turquoise, metal
"The Self-Portrait got to be very popular right away as soon as I made it. But I didn’t exactly make it on purpose. I made it because a gallery was doing a show of self-portraits and asked me to join. I said, 'Well I don’t do self-portraits, so I’m not going to do it' And they said, 'Come on, everybody is going to do it.' It was all minority artists doing things together.
So I had the idea as soon as I hung up the telephone: 'Okay, I’ll lie down on the floor and Maria Thereza can draw me on the canvas; then I’ll carve my face and see what else I will do...'" [full text here]
