Self-Portrait at the Edge of the World
Georges Soler
Dimensions
About the artwork
Long active in the field of self-portraiture, Georges Soler’s recent work explores the entanglement between presence and place, absence and memory. Here, he has displaced the human subject to the edge of the frame, ceding centre-stage to a small remnant stand of rainforest. This displacement questions the traditional anthropocentric, representational framing of portraiture, conjuring a subtle field of attunement to the affective ebb and flow of the more-than-human world.
About the sitter
This piece is a self portrait.
About the artist
Georges Soler was born and raised in Casablanca, Morocco. He immigrated to Australia, settling in Brisbane in 1967. For more than thirty years he made art intermittently while working to support his family and designing, building and renovating several family homes. He attended Queensland College of Art from 1997 – 2000.
“For over fifty years self-portraiture has formed a ground for self-enquiry, a way of making sense of my displaced presence such a world away from my North-African roots.”
Behind the scenes
February 1967, Bonegilla Migrant Camp: the dawn of my first day as a newly-arrived immigrant to Australia. I awake to the vibrancy of Australian birdsong, and immediately feel all my senses come alive. I reach for my sketchbook and my pen dances over the page, recording, exploring.
For over fifty years self-portraiture has formed a ground for self-enquiry, a way of making sense of my displaced presence such a world away from my North-African roots.
Since establishing a studio in the Noosa Hinterland I feel a re-awakening of my initial feelings of vibrancy and aliveness in the natural world, a sense of connectedness and mutual holding which has found it’s way into my art.
