(click image for more details)Untitled, 2007
pen on paper
42cm x 30cm
Untitled, 2007
30cm x 22cm
Untitled, 2007
42cm x 30cm
Erica Eyres examines the human condition through her drawings and videos via an observation of human nature, how we portray ourselves to others and, in turn, the ways in which we perceive others. Through both her austere pen drawings and unnerving videos, Eyres presents us with a series of female characters that veer between the self-conscious, awkwardly clumsy, vulnerable and bashful. Likewise, the reactions her characters provoke in the viewer can be an unsettling mix, fluctuating between amusement, pity, provocation and distaste.
Eyres strives to make the viewer identify (if not necessarily to sympathise) with the emotions of the subjects portrayed in her work, with all their highly-wrought emotions and anxieties.
Both parties are persuaded to engage in the power games. She talks about her work as being 'self portraits', as if she has stepped out of her own body in creating her characters. This adds to the sense that we as the viewer are complicit in the creation of their personas and that all their perceived flaws and deficiencies are equally of our own making, the result of our inbuilt desire to create our own sense of self-worth in relation to how we judge others.
Paul Stone, 2008
find out more about this artist
find out more about Paul Stone
