'Setting my body in front of the camera has been a way of looking at myself in another way, trying to answer all those questions about who we really are.' —Lucia Fainzilber
In her third year of moving to New York, Buenos Aires-born artist Lucia Fainzilber (b. 1986) created her camouflaged self-portrait series Somewear in which she examines the human struggle to find our own identity. Drawing on her background in costume design, she carefully selected different yet complementary patterns and fabrics to wrap or dress herself in and to create the backdrops. 'We camouflage, as animals do or even soldiers, in order to survive,' explains Fainzilber. 'It’s our way of being inside a system.' The resulting optical illusion highlights the undefined relationship between our true identity and our environment. In Untitled 30, offered here, the artist presents herself with back turned, her identity protected, within a patchwork of brightly coloured floral patterns. Fainzilber’s work has been widely exhibited and she continues to live and work in New York.