The self-portrait at the center of this daring work depicts Bujnowski in muted greyscale, eyes forward and face composed in the style of passport portraits. After completing the painting, Bujnowski photographed the work and submitted multiple (passport photo sized) copies along with his visa application. Photographic reproduction mutes the visible brushstrokes of the painting and renders the image – while not indistinguishable from a “real” picture – one that could (and did) pass initial inspection.
The life of Bujnowski’s self-portrait – from painting, to photographic reproduction, to official portrait, to conceptual art piece – challenges viewers to consider what exactly is being “faked” in Visa Portrait. Has adding an additional stage of representation (the painting) resulted in a visa that does not show the “true” Bujnowski? Incorporating his series of reproductions (man-painting-photo-visa) into an official document of identity, Bujnowski’s work also provokes thought about one’s faith in images and the link between identity and visual representation.
In conjunction with his self-portrait, upon his arrival to the United States, Bujnowski enrolled in flying lessons. He filmed his training flight above New York City as part of his project, thus underscoring the ways in which his “false” documents reveal how easily security procedures might be circumvented, even amidst rhetoric of heightened national security. The U.S. Embassy did not comment on the project.
Visa Portrait reflects a continuation of Bujnowski’s interest in exploring questions of originality and serial production in his painting. His series Painting-Objects (1999-2002) consisted of life-size paintings of everyday objects (bricks, cassettes, etc.) and “reduced the concept of mimesis to absurdity” in its replications of real-life objects.
Bujnowski (b. 1974, Wadowice) lives in Kraków, where he continues his work as a painter, graphic designer, and videographer. Visa Portrait is currently in the Rubell Family Collection, Miami.
Rafał Bujnowski
Visa Portrait
Sources: culture.pl, Raster Gallery
ed. Alena Aniskiewicz June 2014