Description
The large multi-image self-portrait tapestry reproduces five pictures originally captured as daguerreotypes. Scale is an important element in Close’s work. Here the daguerreotypes, which each measure approximately 6 x8 inches, are translated into a massive tapestry. To create the tapestry, the daguerreotypes were digitally scanned to capture and magnify the dense, detailed layers of silver particles in each of the photographic plates. The resulting digital files became a blueprint for the work, which was woven by Magnolia Editions on electronic Jacquard looms, seen on the wall to the North Gallery.
In a 2010 interview, Close explained his preoccupation with portraiture as well as the importance of his labor-intensive approach to artmaking: “I have prosopagnosia, which is face blindness. I never recognize people. [...] When I flatten an image out I can commit it to memory, and as I build this image I am embedding that image into my brain, and I have an almost photographic memory for anything that is flat. There’s no question that I was driven to make portraits in an effort to really cement these images and make them something that I could retain. But nothing gets made without a process. It’s just a process that you choose.”
Both daguerreotypes and jacquard tapestries are nineteenth-century techniques that are rarely used in contemporary art. Along with mezzotints and Woodburytypes, these historical processes greatly appeal to Close, who is deeply interested in the complexity and challenges that come along with them.