BYU art exhibit evokes questions about identity

PROVO — Talking to Andrew Sexton, it becomes clear why his self-portrait is a 6-foot long, flaming mustache: The Yale University graduate and portrait artist is also a welder who sports distinct handlebar-shaped whiskers.

"Sometimes I sign my drawings with a little mustache," Sexton said. "I wanted to have this be my icon for myself, like a Batman sign."

Sexton's steel soup-strainer, which can be lit on fire, sits outside Brigham Young University's Museum of Art as the iconic piece in the new exhibit: "Mirror, Mirror: Contemporary Portraits and the Fugitive Self," which runs until May 8, 2010.

The contemporary exhibit asks patrons to re-evaluate how they see themselves and how they present themselves to others, all while viewing striking portraits of others.

But don't expect a gallery full of headshots.

"Portraits are very different than they were 100 years ago," said Jeff Lambson, the museum's contemporary-art curator, who came to BYU from the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. "(Historically) if you were some nobleman, you had an artist paint a picture that put you in a good light. Now, (portraits are) more about examining the human condition and answering questions of society, who we are and why we do what we do."

The exhibition focuses on those questions through three themes: rituals that shape our identity, the different identities we create for ourselves, and finally, who we truly are underneath the "masks" we create.

"Ultimately, (this exhibit) is looking at artists that are peeling these layers away that we accumulate in society," Lambson said.

Given the modern nature of the exhibit, many of the pieces were created using culturally relevant media, such as YouTube videos, GPS tracking devices and photographs from Facebook — all new ways of defining ourselves.

Mark Khaisman's piece, "Ani and Sofie," was created using a light box and packing tape layered on Plexiglas in different densities, creating a sepia-tone portrait.

The women are seated close together, with one of the women's hands outstretched to take their own picture — a pose frequently seen on Facebook, MySpace or personal blogs.

"Photography today is something completely different, Lambson said. "It's no longer about photography. It's documenting where we've been. A much more casual snap of life."

When those snapshots are added to the Facebook world, it becomes yet another way for people to define themselves or create a persona, Sexton said.

Artist Mary Henderson also relied on Facebook, borrowing pictures from her friends' accounts and painting the everyday poses in striking photographic realism.