Thinking about Self-Portraits

Charles Fager plays with the idea of self-portraits in this humorous piece. Made of cast porcelain, the sculpture is a bust of Fager. The larger, hinged face opens to reveal six miniature porcelain busts of the artist—a witty representation of the title. The piece also challenges us to consider our role in viewing the artwork. When the front of the sculpture is closed, the goggles provide a window to the portraits inside. Instead of seeing our own reflection as we might expect, we are faced with more images of the artist. Fager created the life-size cast of his head with alginate, a material commonly used to create dental molds. He then created successive molds that slowly shrank in size as the material dried.