ID or IQ: Reflective Photographic Series 150cmx100cm

We live in a world where our body's age, gender, shape, dress and colour are determinants of our lives and supposed clues of our social identities. It also appears that our chances in life are measured by these unique attributes. Beauty and Ugliness, height and weight, physical handicaps (if any), are prime determinants of the self which effect social responses to the self. Why is it that how one seems to appear is what one thinks he/she is getting? Aristotle said that sight is "the noblest sense…the mirror of the soul, the I". Is what we see a reflection of what we know - or don't know? Is how we see a reflection of our tolerance or intolerance? Can the mirror of our soul gaze at another without employing pre-established stereotypes?
In my art practice (1995-99) I'm interested in posing questions, not immediate answers about visual identity. I use photography, video and sculpture to challenge the viewer's initial assumptions (usually negative ones), about what they see. After all, we can't walk around with our eyes wide shut. That would be truly boring, erase all elements of mystery and the unknown. Some questions will never be answered, just as common stereotypes may not conform to a viewer's pre-established assumption. We can only wonder about whom one really is, on the bus, tube, in the supermarket unless we thoroughly interview every single person we walk past, every single second of our lives. Nevertheless, we can't deny that we are all inquisitive voyeurs to some extent, myself very much included, especially in an age of growing ambiguity and multiculturalism. The transient glance at the strangest stranger can be a most magnificent and impressive manifestation - or not depending of the viewer's reliance on traditional stereotyping. Human expression as I see it, is totally ambiguous because a certain look to one person may be interpreted by another in a totally opposite way.....