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Many people’s experience of nude images of trans women is from porn. I don’t believe there is anything inherently wrong with porn but it shouldn’t be the sole arena for someone’s visibility.
As an artist I hope to provide a safe space where people, especially those who might otherwise feel uncomfortable with the subject matter, can escape the noise of political discourse and just look and see for themselves. Once everything is revealed, all that remains is the person, and for me that is what I am capturing: personalities and beauty - not technical distinctions. As much as categories can help people understand each other, they can equally define divisions. Historically our perceived differences have too often been exploited by oppressors - but if we are willing to truly see all humans as equal, there is an oft overlooked joy of appreciation of the human form, free from mystery, myth or fear. The photographic and the tactile, the digital and the organic, stages of consideration for the viewer: everything is layers. The starting point for these portraits is photography, both of my subjects and of textures on the walls around Mexico City, I then combine these photographic elements digitally to create what I consider captures the 'moment' - a mixture of the subject's personality and mine, the personal connection between us. As a photographer I'm competent but I have two decades of experience working as a digital artist, so it is in the computer that I have the most control over the image. Someone like Annie Leibovitz can probably capture someone in one click of the shutter, but I need to spend some time in the computer to get to that point. I then work with the image to make the most beautiful thing I've ever made - and the next stage is to print up this digital image and destroy it. Really. I print it up large scale, and paint and collage upon it - to the point that I start freaking out, and thinking 'Oh god this is a catastrophe, I don't know what I'm doing!' - and it's important to reach that point - on the verge of panic - and then I have to work the image back to make it something that exceeds what I thought was possible, more beautiful than I could have imagined. So it's a roller coaster ride. A journey. Each piece is like that - if you don't have that stage of panic, then it's no longer art - it becomes just 'design' ... and you're cheating your subject really. The pieces are portraits - and the mood of the moment must come through - the model's personality, yours, and of the moment. You have to be honest, and to do that you have to put yourself out of your comfort zone - and for me, that's out of the computer. You might think you can tell, when looking at a finished piece, where one technique ends and another begins - what is digital and what is paint or collage - but when you look closely it's not so clear. And this blurring of definition echoes my thoughts regarding identity - for me it's the individual that counts, not technical distinctions. One thing you learn as a visual artist is that there is no such thing as a boundary between black and white, there is only a transition of greys, ever more tones revealing themselves the deeper one looks, In case you don’t get the analogy, I hope to encourage you to see the whole picture, not to get trapped into trying to categories what you perceive as different parts of the image. 
MATT WILLIS-JONES, MEXICO CITY, 2018 |
Introducing one of my models, Ivanna, at External Morphologies
invite for unveiling at Capitan Gallo (Mexico City)
WHY BELIEVE IN GOD WHEN YOU CAN BELIEVE IN ME?
A portrait of Terry Holiday 
Lynda Moore Orozco (Left) poses with Terry Holiday at the unveiling ceremony of Why Believe In God When You Can Believe In Me? - photo by Mauricio Olivera ©2018
Terry Holiday selfie with Lynda Moore Orozco (right) in front of her portrait 'Why Believe In God When You Can Believe In Me?'
Lynda Moore Orozco, getting dizzy upstairs at my exhibit at Capitan Gallo
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EXHIBITIONS IN MEXICO CITY
14/06/2018 - 23/07/18 - Capitan Gallo - Solo show: 'Why Believe in God When You Can Believe in Me?'
22/03/2018 - 22/05/2018 - OTRA Art - Solo show: 'External Morphology'
01/03/2018 - 21/03/2018 - Galeria Aguafuerte
08/02/2018 - 27/02/2018 - Galeria Aguafuerte
19/02/2018 - 31/02/2018 - Galeria 665
12/01/2018 - 22/01/2018- Galeria Aguafuerte
12/12/2017 - 23/12/2017- Galeria Aguafuerte
22/03/2018 - 22/05/2018 - OTRA Art - Solo show: 'External Morphology'
01/03/2018 - 21/03/2018 - Galeria Aguafuerte
08/02/2018 - 27/02/2018 - Galeria Aguafuerte
19/02/2018 - 31/02/2018 - Galeria 665
12/01/2018 - 22/01/2018- Galeria Aguafuerte
12/12/2017 - 23/12/2017- Galeria Aguafuerte
