When discussing portraiture, people continually refer to seeing into the soul of the person captured, but what if the focus is less on individuals and more on contemporary issues around identity, history, culture and representation? Behind the Mask, one of a series of portraiture exhibitions at The New Art Gallery Walsall this Summer, brings together the work of 10 diverse artists that employ a wide-range of media, from performance to painting.

In her latest photographical series, Cindy Sherman represents the lengths women of wealth and status will go to respond to the media pressure to remain young and beautiful, whilst Glenn Brown’s etchings layer works by Lucien Freud, to challenge the perceptions of well-known imagery.

Faye Claridge (image above) consistently engages with portraiture within her work. This series see Morris men, women and children photographed in their full traditional regalia with elaborate costumes and props, sometimes with their faces covered or blacked-up.

This exhibition also includes the work Self-Portrait as my Uncle Bryan Gregory by Gillian Wearing. The work is drawn from the Album series in which the artist has represented herself as different members of her family including her mother, father, sister and brother as well as herself.

Behind the Mask’s artists distort and disguise to create compelling works of art that challenge traditional stereotypes, and break down the presumptions society has of topics and portraiture itself.

The New Art Gallery Walsall, Gallery Square, Walsall, WS2 8LG
01922 654400
Until 12 September

Continuing with her site specific work Birmingham based artist and photographer, Faye Claridge, will be exhibiting her ‘Stranger’ series at Three White Walls gallery at The Mailbox from Thursday, 16 April until Tuesday, 26 May called ‘Only A Stranger Can Bring Good Luck, Only A Known Man Can Hang’.

The series depicts Morris dancers in a ‘paradise’, painted and assembled by Claridge who worked with the group over a number of months, learning about their relationships to the past and their motivations for dancing.

The photographs explore relations between living tableaux and photography and challenge photography’s capacity for authenticity, by making portraits which both reveal and obscure, document and create. The style combines Old Master paintings with theatrical staging and is influenced by portraiture of the 18th century.

The men pictured wear the traditional dress of Morris dancers, an ancient art form that is usually associated with pagan fertility rites. Uniquely, these men from Bedford dance in honour of their townsman John Bunyan, the celebrated puritan who discouraged music and dance. They are strictly against women dancing Morris and believe this stance is important to uphold for the sake of tradition.

The ‘hooded’ portraits refer to the need for disguise when men were prosecuted and hung for performing ‘the Devil’s dance’. Usually dismissed as harmless fun, these portraits show Morris dancing as a far stranger social phenomenon that deserves closer attention.

Claridge’s work can also be seen at Danielle Arnaud in London until 3rd May.