Likeness by Jessica Westbrook, USA
Digital video, 2007
Likeness was an opportunity to consider the products of social intersections, familial connections, and the complex of human relationships resulting from a set of shared conditions (geography, timing, structure, economics, lifestyle). Each subset (family) is paired (signified) by an element/visual descriptor (reference) that is unique and relevant. This project explores the history of the photographic likeness, in a contemporary binary context. It is both sentimental (intimacy, metaphor, love, subjective) and analytical (calculation, construct, ratio, objective).
Jessica Westbrook was born in Pittsburgh, PA in the 1970’s. As an architect, consultant, entrepreneur, and addict, my Dad’s priorities lie in the design and implementation of fantasy, escapism, and social experiences that appealed
to the most basic human desires. His business endeavors kept my family in flux, moving up and down the East Coast, until we finally settled in the sprawling suburbs of Orlando, FL in the 1980’s.
I spent all of my formative years privy to both the nature and business of adult entertainment, and in contrast, the simulated construct of family entertainment branded complexes like Disney World, Kennedy Space Center, and Universal Studios. Like everyone else I went to public school, watched a lot of cable, took in a lot of advertising, and developed my own habits and hobbies - mine included an intense interest in the facts/figures and life/sex/death cycles presented in nature documentaries like “Our Wild America.” When I was 9 years old I started making photographs and with my Mom’s encouragement, photography became an element of consistency, structure, and interaction in my life (my own language and social device). I believe the forces experienced early on: familial chaos, desire and social constructs,
business and simulation, the mediation of nature, and the exploration of images and visual language; continue to influence my thinking and inform my work.
