[button link=”http://andreinadavila.com/form-to-participate-collecting-egos-for-i-am-series/” color=”black”] Complete the Survey: What do you Identify with?[/button]
Latin for “I”, Ego is the sense of self that is constantly attempting to define our personal identity so that we can distinguish ourselves from others: the set of labels or forms used by our minds to build identity.
Who Am I? (Quien Soy?) What identifies me? (each of us)
Through our Ego, we tend to equate having, thinking, doing, feeling with being, but defining ourselves through things, thoughts, roles, work, or temporary emotions is limiting.
Central to this series is the recognition that our conceptual identity is NOT who we are, but a mere attempt to understand reality, which -as we know- is a relative concept. By embracing the plural and constant nature of our Ego, painting or sculpting the labels we use to identify ourselves, #I Am] hopes to de-clutter the entanglement of information creating room for personal and collective awareness.
Process
- People are invited to complete a survey where they can describe ONE label that they identify with deeply. I.e. motherhood, freedom, love, place, a health condition, body, a state of mind, etc. The label could be a thing, a thought, a person, , an experience, a role, a place, etc.[button link=”http://andreinadavila.com/form-to-participate-collecting-egos-for-i-am-series/” color=”black”] Complete the Survey: What do you Identify with?[/button]
- Each artwork is a portrait of one identity aspect or label of the person collaborating with the artist.
- For the purpose of this study “Ego” is the set of “labels” or “forms” used by our minds to build our conceptual identity, but “Ego” is not who we are. Each piece will portrait one (1) “label” or “form”. Example: [I Am] Free; portraits the identification with “freedom” or “being free”.
- By sharing personal content in the form of visual clues, symbols, memories, phrases, photos, etc. I hope that collectively we can help each other portray a wide range of identity labels (not only mine) as I try to detach my own judgment from my creative process, the resulting artwork should be more authentic, and meaningful.
- Every perspective implies limitations. I understand that fully separating my perspective from the Egos portrayed is impossible, but I believe that this process deepens the understanding of what contemporary art is.
- Over the course of the next several years, #I Am] will complement the work of its sister series #SOMOS (We are), which tackles the question of human existence from a philosophical perspective.
