Shaun Kardinal @ Vermillion Gallery, Seattle -- or, How I've Learned to See Myself a Little Differently

I've been hoping to talk about Shaun Kardinal's photography for some time, ever since I saw his work at SOIL and Howard House earlier this year. While he explores several themes in his work, he's currently focused on self portraiture. At first glance, one might make a mistake and think they've seen this obsessive self-documentation on MySpace and in first year art student portfolios, but one couldn't be more wrong - Kardinal's success is in the placement of the lens rather than his vanity. It's not as much a documentation of acts that are happening to him, as it is a purposeful recurrence of what has already happened. To whom it has happened is the question.

When looking at these photographs, I place myself squarely in the frame, replacing the subject. I'm remembering an event that may or may not have happened to me. I'm either not sure or don't know who's there, they haven't been revealed yet. Is it me or someone else? This effect is most successful in pieces which are larger or where the subject is angled more directly in front of the lens. Kardinal could be playing with voyeurism, which he's stated; but he seems more interested in tapping into our sense of sympathy or projection of self on the work. While these moments may have been about him in the beginning, I get the sense they are now less about him and becoming more about us.

I've started thinking of them as a kind of vision-- my seeing / the way we're seen by others / seeing the way we're seen by others. I've always had an obsessive curiosity about the volume of space I take up in the world and I still haven't figured it out. What do I look like to other people? What would I look like (or what would my life look like) if I saw myself through other people's eyes? It might be like this.

Perhaps it's the seemingly unimportant things that lead to our individual identity as a whole, the small everyday experiences which make us who we are. These experiences are universally quirky, awkward, private, peculiar, common. Kardinal's reflective reenactments are a meditation on the mundane -- I am here now in this space, this is what I am doing this morning, these are the things I do when I'm alone, these are the acts which make me who I am. Through his recorded performance he is invoking memory and revealing identity -- his, yours, and ours.

If you haven't stepped out to see it yet, I recommend going it this weekend before the show closes on 5 July. Shaun's work is up at the Vermillion Gallery, 11 Ave E, open every day but Monday from 4-"late"

Shaun Kardinal, Progression Lightjet C-Print, 2008. 20 x 20 inches
image courtesy of the artist

Shaun Kardinal, Go On I'm Listening, Lightjet C-Print, 2008. 20 x 20 inches
image courtesy of the artist