September 9- November 1, 2024
Allenton Gallery

Celebration of Show: October 18th from 6-8pm

 I have always struggled with the idea of the self-portrait. The camera is an ingenious tool that allows an introvert like me, a means of making oneself invisible by placing the focus on something or someone else. But when the camera is turned around and is in skilled hands, there is no longer anywhere to hide as it always bores down into one’s soul. I find myself at a point in life that I no longer want to be invisible. I want to be seen, but I want to be seen as myself, to break down the assumptions people make. But to be truly seen, one must know who they are. As life brought on new roles and identities, wife and mother, somewhere along the way I had forgotten who I am.

In my quest to regain my sense of self, I chose to focus on the fundamental relationships that have shaped me; those that are in the present, and those that are in the past. I have manifested this through masquerade. These photographs are not literally me, they are characters, people from my past amalgamated into one. They represent phases in my life and places and people I have known, but they are also the universal, the archetype. They are you just as much as they are me.

Photo: Jennifer Cantwell

This project has dominated my life and thoughts for the past two and a half years and is the most intuitive work I have made to date. I always wanted to be a painter, but I was frustrated by the fact that I could never achieve an end result on the canvas to match what I had envisioned in my mind. This project made me see how photography – painting with light – is a more expressive creative medium for me. Photography can lend realism to an idea that is obviously constructed. I love the irony of the photograph being an arbiter of what is real. I chose to print these photographs very large, to deepen this illusion. They confront the viewer while inviting them to enter the scene that is being depicted.

This work represents time and the emotions and moments that shaped me and made me question the foundation of everything. Before we can ask, who are we, we have to ask, who am I?

A special thank you to the William King Museum of Art in Abingdon, VA and especially to Alice Salyer.

Thank you to Bart Fox and Julian’s of Chapel Hill for their generosity.

Artist Bio:

Jennifer Cantwell is a photographic artist based out of Chapel Hill, NC. She was born in Washington DC and has lived in Guadalajara, Mexico, New York City, Santiago, Chile, and many other places in between. As Jennifer has always lived in a multi-racial, multi-cultural, and multi-lingual space, her work tends to focus on ideas of identity, family, home, and community. Her work is about looking beyond the surface to see and to be seen. She studied photography at SUNY Purchase and graduated with a BFA in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her work has been described as minimalist, pared down to the essence of the subject, whether that is a still life or a person. Much of her work has explored the portrait, and she now expands that by examining the self-portrait.