Cenotaph for my Shadow

Cenotaph for my Shadow is a body of sculptural and photographic works that aims, through various strategies and in mixed media, at the depiction, an expression, and manifestation of my Cartesian self despite the representational dilemmas of lens based media. I explore the need that drove Roland Barthes, amongst others, towards an ontological questioning of the photographic medium: “What Barthes wants is a rescue of his profound self through the solid evidence of photography”. So do I.

“Jean Bettingen presents sculptural and photographic works that seek to visualize and thereby rescue the self through the evidence of photography. Each work is a self-portrait, but Bettingen’s fanciful experiments with photographic materials suggest the futility of self-representation, and by implication, self-knowledge.”

— Bonnie Yochelson, curator

Project Publications

Works

Negative Dimension, 2014
Thermoplastic, glass, acrylic

Autopoiesis, 2013
wet-plate collodion, 2-way mirrors, digital projector, acrylic, vinyl

5 Hours, 2013
exposed but undeveloped film sheet, light-tight bag, black cardboard box

Noise, 2014
Digital projector, acrylic, vellum