Dividuals

How distinct and individual are we? The dominant impression is that we are one person, acting by and large independently. When I was working on this picture I was thinking about examples that are to the contrary, how we often think and act in alignment and indistinguishably from other people. Maybe you have had the experience where you think the exact same sequence of thoughts as people you are close to. Motherhood is one clear example where both before and for some time after birth, two people exist less distinguishably and in overlap. Contributing to this ‘dividualism’ is our surprisingly thin sense of self; Anil Seth talks about it in ‘Being You’, describing how his mother quickly loses any concept of who she is during delirium in hospital.

Perhaps these figures are internal selves, who complete and conflict with each other. Maybe they are external humans who mimic, convince and persuade the other, each pulling in different directions.

'Dividuals'
77 x 110.5 cm
Screenprint, Edition of 9