Disguise Yourself as Another Object (Wallpaper) 2016

Elina Brotherus made this photograph, Disguise Yourself as Another Object (Wallpaper), as part of an ongoing investigation into the possibilities of photographic portraiture. It’s a playful, searching work – a kind of double self-portrait, where Brotherus both poses for and confronts her own image. On the left, we see a life-size photograph of the artist dressed in a red and blue baseball tee and a white tutu – wallpaper, as the title suggests. Brotherus is standing next to the photograph of herself, wearing the same outfit, as if stepping out of the image. I wonder, did she feel like she had to perform the same way as her photographic self? Did she think about other artists who use their own bodies to make art, like Hannah Wilke? I also wonder about this playful title: Can a person ever truly be an object, or is this another way of thinking about how images objectify people? The artist invites us to consider the nature of representation, identity, and the self. Brotherus seems to be saying that portraiture, like painting, is an act of transformation.