Auto Portrait #2 is one of several moving-image works in which Frances Hegarty presents herself, performatively, as a divided, doubled, or multiplied subject. In this case she begins with the idea of sitting for a traditional portrait, but adds strobe lights, a video camera and an impossible autobiographical monologue. The result is a highly dynamic self-portrait in which the subject is fragmented in various ways, whilst also appearing to gather up and relive a whole life in a few intense minutes.

For Auto Portrait #2 a screen and a bare loudspeaker face each other across the installation space, each suspended on tensioned steel ropes. The loudspeaker is picked out by a spotlight, set up as though to illuminate a person, a pool of light inviting the listener to stand closer.

In the quietest part of the video-sound cycle, strobe lights fire at a regular, sedate pace, impelled by sharp clicks to the left and right of the screen. On screen, left and right sides of the seated subject appear intermittently in bursts of white light.

After a single intake of breath from the on-screen sitter, her voice is cast across the room to the spotlit loudspeaker, beginning the recitation of a life, given as a mixture of personal memories and remembered world events. The voice is at once disembodied (separate from the on-screen image, and not lip-synced) and embodied (the loudspeaker apparatus occupies a space analogous to Hegarty’s body, if she were present).

As the frequency of the strobes increases, it drives an increase in the rate of speech. The on-screen figure becomes agitated, demonstrating both a resistance to the process underway, and a synchrony with it. Eventually the voice becomes implausibly fast and breathless, and the flailing on-screen figure is almost subsumed into white light and noise.

After a few intense moments, the pace slows, and the on-screen image darkens again. With a single exhalation, the sitter falls back into her initial pose, and the monologue reaches its end with a final remembered event: ‘…making this soundtrack’. After a few moments, the cycle begins again.

In 2023 Auto Portrait #2 was fully restored with the video-sound sequence edited on the template of the 1999 original, using the original video footage. The restoration features a remixed and remastered soundtrack completely rebuilt from recordings used in the original.

Hegarty’s several Auto Portrait works have been discussed by a variety of writers, including Angela Halliday (2015), Shirley MacWilliam (2005, 1999), Katy Deepwell (2005), Sharon Kivland (2003), Monica Ross (2003). For a list of commentary see: www.franceshegarty.com/commentary

More at: www.franceshegarty.com www.franceshegarty.com/art/auto-portrait-2