Katarina Riesing explores identity through memory, histories, and the interpretations of others. Her work traverses the terrain of the self-portrait, a portrait defined not solely by a singular image but one that mines psychology, culture, biology, history, and family. Using multiple media, including video, photography and drawing, she allows these mediums to seep into and inform each other, where a photograph becomes a surface for a drawing and photographs take on performative interventions. This interplay between materials and performance parallels the constantly shifting face of portraiture and the complexities the portrait poses. In recent works she has asked the help of others to help define and create a portrait of herself – through the memory of family, friends, and strangers, and most currently through new age practices such as palmistry and aura readings. These practices help her to understand and see her portrait not just as a static image in time, but as in-flux, calling upon the past and future.
