Conceptually, The Camera Smiles Back is about the guises that we all put on during our lives and explores this topic though nods to a couple common English sayings. Through his exaggeratedly large smile we see how this figure, even in death, continues to “smile for the camera,” an action that we have all partaken in many times and which is nearly always a fake and forced gesture. I evoke the punishment from the saying “keep making that face and it’ll stay that way” in this piece, cautioning us that if we continue to always put on fake smiles (which is a reference to fake personalities and guises) that these may very well start to stick. This then prompts questions about what the side effects of such a thing might be, such as loss of self and individual identity. We see this represented in the painting by the way that the figure is unravelling and merging with the background (effectively, the figure is losing themselves), as well as the fact that the figure has lost any and all potentially identifiable features besides their unnaturally giant and fake smile. The title reveals that this “camera” (more of a general term to describe society as a whole) that we all put our fake smiles on for is mirroring the gesture—a reference to how common and automatic it has become for not only us, but everyone else, to act according to societal expectations as opposed to in ways which reflect who we truly are. We live and die in a world made up of disingenuity.
Many of the technical and aesthetic choices I made are conducive towards a portrayal of a decomposing human carcass: the blue skin, the line quality, the shapes. The lines and paint strokes are waterlogged and coming undone. The repetitive circles show him unwinding as he starts to melt into and merge with the earth around him. The background becomes part of the figure, and the figure part of the background, as their colours merge and overlap into one another’s spaces. The figure is made of dying lines and dull colours which are reflected in the surrounding earth through the dull pink crosshatched lines that adorn it. The top of the canvas is an ode to the shining bright colours of the afterlife.
Different interpretations are encouraged as reactions to this work. To me, the aforementioned automation is also hinted through the figure’s blue skin and harsh facial lines, features which to me are reminiscent of robots. The oblong pink forms on the bottom of the canvas might be representative of his fingers laying on his chest as he lies in his final resting place. Perhaps they are holding whatever it is that is seen between them (a microphone?). They may simply be the figure’s pectoral muscles. Are the small swirling circles on his neck indicative of disease and illness (a stoma?), or maybe his Adam’s apple? Such interpretations open the painting up to more and more implications which I only wish to encourage and therefore do not want to comment on. I wish to leave the piece open for viewers to include their own interpretations and truths, as what I have written here is simply my own truth about the painting. Perhaps you see a man who is very much alive and simply relaxing. Perhaps his eyes are closed because he is laughing. Maybe that is not even his mouth, but rather something that is obscuring his face. I regard all possible interpretations (regardless of if I have listed it) as truth.