Mapping the Self-portrait: Navigating Identity and Autobiography in Visual Art

A traditional self-portrait in visual art is popularly understood as a singular image - usually a painting, photograph, drawing or other similar graphic medium - where the artist is also the subject. This text expands this view by considering the self as changeable, constantly in flux, and therefore impossible to capture in just one image. Exploring the possibilities of representing identity, this book focuses on the writing of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, allowing for an understanding of identity that acknowledges the movement and change of the self and allows an art-work to represent identity as a constantly changing form. With an emphasis on narrative-based self-representation, this text explores the construction of identity and possibilities of representing the self through autobiography and visual art.