Got ID
"It is a work that reflects many faces; synthetic, modern and ancient, tragic and comedic...
Manby’s motley crew of images comment on modern day identity"
Jay Manby’s body of work continues the processes of using bold line, circular patterned motifs and abstract geometrical configurations. Manby’s use of black and white tones creates an intoxicating effect – a psychedelic visual drama that represents a fascination with identity.
Inspired by masks, particularly ancient masks, Manby’s motley crew of images comment on modern day identity; both our online avatar personas and our offline selves. Masks have traditionally been used in performance; its most ancient form in shamanic rituals and ceremony, but also in Ancient Greek drama, where the masks used by The Chorus created a sense of homogeneity, whilst at the same time representing a variety of personas or single entities, thereby encouraging inter-dependency and sensitivity between the individuals of a collective towards some understanding of who we are.
GotID is a hybridisation of some of the oldest and newest ways of thinking about mask and identity, but it also incorporates the modern idea of social media communications. Manby creates a unique visual language, audacious in its scope, in a mind-bending fusion of ancient symbolism with the digital personas of the 21st century. The human face is subsumed in the profile picture, the feeling by the emoticon, our personal identities by public images.
Our identities are perhaps becoming more fluid and the distinction between the public self and the private self is in a greater state of flux than ever before. This is the broad narrative throughout the work – an exploration of identity, persona and emotion. It is a work that reflects many faces; synthetic, modern and ancient, tragic and comedic. Zika
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Please join me for the opening of my exhibition Got ID at the beautiful Eltham Village Gallery on Saturday 8th October from 6 pm - 9 pm.