I heard portraiture aspired to capture an essence or intimacy of subjects. I guess I missed that – having, quite frankly, no specifically intimate information on any of the portrayed individuals to relay.

Being placed in the environment of the gallery space, like a wall, like a light fixture, quietly living together with bodies of finished art, as each exhibition morphs into the next… what kind of object does that make the staff member? Co-existent through employment, flatmates by design.

What I enjoyed in working with full-sized pieces was the lack of understanding, somehow not being in on the joke, the expression of one more engaged in whatever their practice. That reoccurring sense of “I know something you don’t know.”

-Jade du Preez 2008