Emily Portmann

Through stills and video of a private performance, Portmann explores the emotional and psychological ideology of self-care. The works record successive gestures of cocooning and containment as the artist gradually encases her head and body in bubble wrap. A parody emerges of a society in which fetishised notions of self-comfort, protection and healing coincide with the commercialisation of wellbeing.

Image: Emily Portmann, Aftercare Action One, 2021, archival inkjet print.