Barry Anderson:
Totemic persona
Personaphase
Installation
Totemic Persona (2017) is a public video work created in response to conservative rhetoric surrounding the issue of immigration. It is a simultaneous portrait of a diverse community, with a direct, somewhat defiant gaze toward the viewer. The Personaphase (2019–present) project evolves traditional notions of the individual portrait into a visual experience that pushes past singular identities to create composites of elusive, shifting temporal spaces. These two related series of video works center around the concept of aggregate portraits. While Personaphase depicts families or groups of friends, Totemic Persona represents broader communities. In both series, Anderson creates interlaced, temporal portraits of groups of people linked in a way that blends them into an aggregate visage.
Bio
Barry Anderson is a Kansas City-based artist working in video, photography, sound, and installation. His work has been featured in over 50 solo exhibitions and more than 100 group exhibitions across the U.S. and abroad. His work is also included in museums and numerous public and private collections around the country. His current projects include Polychrome Rift, a series of AI-processed videos and prints exploring psychological space in abstract form and content, and Lucite Plains, a music and performance collaboration with fellow visual artist Ricky Allman.