unknownsitter.com (2005-2010)
What is the value of a portrait when we don’t know who is in it?
unknownsitter.com is an on-line anthology to ten unidentified portraits, selected from a wealth of material found in national collections across the UK. Through the discussion of these portraits, this website raises questions about the nature of identity, representation, and the role of the observer in interpreting visual images. The result of an initial collaboration between myself and art historian Lara Perry, a range of disciplines as well as portraits - some of which have never been published before – come together to explore the problem of the unknown sitter, and the value of their portraits, once identity has been lost.
List of Contributors:
Nicky Bird (Glasgow School of Art, UK)
Vicki Bruce (Newcastle University, UK)
Jeanne Cannizzo (University of Edinburgh, UK)
Lucy Hartley (University of Michigan, USA)
Alison Matthews-David (Ryerson University, Canada)
Pamela Gerrish Nunn (University of Canterbury, New Zealand)
Lara Perry (University of Brighton, UK)
Annebella Pollen (University of the Arts, UK)
Brian Stokoe (Northumbria University, UK)
Alex Veness (Visual Artist, UK)
unknownsitter.com was made possible by the British Academy’s Small Research Grant Scheme
Read an article by Lara Perry & Nicky Bird