IT'S NOT YOU IT'S ME  (2023) grew from my discovery of a condition called folie à deux or, shared delusional disorder, in which a psychosis is transmitted from one person to another living with them. The beliefs can be as benign as knowing that Elvis is alive to as fatal as believing you've both been called to become serial killers.

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This project adds to the tradition of the double within the history of fine-art. Including works as diverse as the painting, The Cholmoneley Ladies, (made by an unknown artist around 1605), to the photographs of twins, by the likes of Seydou Keita and Diane Arbus in the 20th Century.

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"The art of doubling is an invitation to look more closely, to reflect and consider. It is an exercise in identity, an opportunity to see difference or similarity, what separates or what unites us. As such, it reveals as much about us -the identifiers - as it does about the art we see before us" *

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The featured couples are either friends, relatives, lovers or complete strangers, (brought together solely for the purpose of making a particular portrait. The performances, (some devised from an element of truth others pure fabrication), were made collaboratively.

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*Meyer James (2022) The Double: Identity and difference in Art since 1900 Washington the National Gallery of Art. Pg. 6