I am still taking pictures of commuters on the train, focusing on their expressions. I have a folder of all the faces and today I spread them all out on the floor. This reminded me of an exhibition I had seen on the top floor of the Saatchi Gallery, small pictures of victims of the war in Afghanistan. So many faces. So many different expressions. Eyes looking in different directions. Different skin-tones. What I need is more faces, more people. I would like it if viewers did not know quite where to look. Or maybe they would be drawn to one face, one pair of eyes.
I have looked at the work of artist John Stezaker. It is interesting how he pulls different faces together as one.
The odd juxtaposition of tones made me think that instead of using the same size box for each face, the same colour and texture of paper, the same colour printing, I could experiment. I would like to incorporate collage, photos and paint.
I had the idea of putting a baby in my picture. It came from the idea of parallel play – babies playing side by side but independently, self-absorbed, oblivious of one another.
I played with the idea of putting a character from Vermeer in the picture. But it seemed too much. And I thought it would result in a mixed message. I wanted to keep it fairly direct.
