The Stereo-Couple

Stereo-Couple

            Stereo-Couple is a set of images that explore the notion that any person is capable of anything. The series appropriates the genre of the self portrait as explored by such artists as Cindy Sherman while heightening this concept by placing each character within the confines of a romantic relationship. This addition of a second individual raises the stakes for potential conflict and drama while intensifying the dynamic of each character within their particular environment.

            With the growth of social media such as Myspace, Facebook and Twitter there is also an increased pressure to create an idyllic representation of self, friends, and loved ones.

Stereo-Couple tells the story of eleven different couples including the titles, "I Fancy You," "Bland Date," "Head Over Heels," "Head In The Clouds," "Picture Perfect," "Role Play," "Storybook Romance," "Tough Love," "It Pays To Love You," "I Reckon I Love You," and "Triple Date." These titles of each couple in their respective environment increases the satirical tone of the work while unifying the Stereo-Couple as a series with a specific pattern. The visual technique of diptych is used within the set to aid in more stimulating visual and story elements within each individual couple. The image set entitled "Triple Date" is particularly strong because of its complexity of visual elements. Like the other images within the Stereo-Couple series "Triple Date" is split into two frames providing two seemingly different actions. The connection between man and woman is unknown. The image on top shows two individuals with a five foot distance between them observing two different gallery pieces on the wall which depicts two additional couples. The image in the bottom frame closes the gap between the characters and creates a conversation between the two dealing with the subject manner that they are viewing or quite possibly about more trivial things such as the gallery wall color or even the weather. Various meanings can be derived from "Triple Date" depending on the manner in which the project is presented and the implementation of the viewers own past experiences. But when one looks at the photograph in terms of  the Stereo-couple series as a whole a serialization of images begins to form. This picture within a picture creates the realization that the people within the photograph are in fact looking at themselves as various couples which forces them to step out of their own bodies to look at a physical representation of their own relationship. This voyeuristic set is the most compelling of the other ten depictions of couples because it is in fact the photographer looking at a representation of his own relationship through the characters in the gallery, which are looking at two more representations of his own relationship within the photographs in that same gallery, but no one depiction is his actual relationship. The conceptual framework of the Stereo-Couple series shares a definite correspondence to photographer Cindy Sherman. Sherman steps into her own photographs portraying various characters using the self portrait technique to tell her story. Sherman's characters are exaggerated with a cinematic quality which seems to place the viewer in the middle of a story. Her characters show the female struggle to break free from stereotypes. While Stereo-Couple shares some of the same concepts it goes beyond showing the different roles that women play in society and tells the side of the man in society while interweaving their paths within the stereotype, bringing particular attention to the inner workings of a modern relationship of self identification .

            Since the photographer and the characters in the Stereo-Couple series are one in the same then can any of the characters within the series really be a true representation of the photographer. This staged representation of self aims to devalue the use of stereotype and its use as an identification tool. These characters exemplify the stereotype in an effort to look at the simplified method in which we label not only ourselves but also others.  The subject matter of Stereo-Couple is important not only because it comments on the nature of stereotypes but because it also satires the concept of creating a perfected representation of who we are as individuals popularized through the genre of the social media outlet.  Since this issue hasn't been addressed in this particular way before it has value in the context of the contemporary art world.