Biblio Gallery Exhibit: A Self-Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: Anshul Roy

Stop by the new Biblio Gallery exhibit on the 4th floor of Bird Library features “A Self-Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: Anshul Roy.” Roy has an MFA in Art Photography.

The artist said, “The title of this body of work is inspired by James Joyce’s 1916 novel ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.’ I am interested in the theme of self-hood and how we construct it by analyzing our bodies. In this photo series, I have juxtaposed my microscopic and macroscopic self-portraits to accentuate the contrast between these two diverse kinds of self-representation. Although the technical process of taking these self-portraits is radically distinct, my underlying artistic approach is the same, i.e., – I am externalizing the presence of my body and analyzing and visually documenting this. This externalization could take the form of observing how my shadow/reflection interacts with the surroundings or slicing a part of my skin and viewing it under a microscope. This underlying approach connects these self-portraits as a body of work. I am also interested in the inherent dichotomies present in these photos, such as – microscopic vs macroscopic, abstraction vs representation of my body and concrete physical objects from my body vs the ephemeral and intangible presence of my body. Looking inside and outside my body is a way to question my self-hood and ask the perennial question that we all have pondered at some time in our lives – “Who Am I?”