Siri Hayes

Masks have always fascinated me. When you put on a mask, you are given the opportunity to step into the skin of someone other than yourself. You assume a different character, take on different mannerisms and see things in a different perspective. I have taken part in art installations where I was required to wear full-body, all-white make-up. Since all the other performers also had to wear the same make-up, we each transformed into ghostly figures with no other individually outstanding characteristics. Reveling in such anonymity, we became different people - a different race who thought in unison towards the benefit of the production. It went very well.

But the interesting part of the experience did not end there. Removing the make-up made me feel self-conscious. The act of stepping out of our characters led us back to reality. We see out true faces again. We transform back into ourselves. The air in the make-up room was thick with apprehension. It is this experience that enabled me to feel an immediate connection to Siri Hayes’ “Transition Portraits”:

“Transition Portraits is a series of large colour photographic portraits of people in the act of removing clown make-up. My subjects looked at themselves in a mirror as they removed their painted masks, and I photographed their mirrored reflection. I was interested in how the smearing action of removing the make-up can create a moment of existential crisis. The subject is captured in transition between the disintegration of one identity and the unveiling of another, and the subject and viewer are both privy to the transformation.”

“Investigation of surface is central to how these portraits function visually and conceptually. A photograph is a smooth surface that creates an illusion of depth and reality. I have added an additional layer of illusion to these portraits by photographing the mirror instead of the subject. This investigation continues beyond the surface of the medium to the imagery within. Incomplete erasure of the clown make-up, and the revelation of the underlying human face draws attention to the surface of both. At a conceptual level, the portraits simultaneously reveal and conceal multiple surfaces.” (from a written conversation between Siri Hayes and Juan Ford)