autoportrait (2017)

Overview

autoportrait is a silent potrait of Diamond Reynolds shot on 35mm, black and white film. In July 2016, Reynolds broadcast, via Facebook Live, the moments after the murder of her partner Philando Castile by a police officer during a traffic stop in Minnesota. Reynolds' video circulated widely online and amassed over six million views. In November 2016, with the assistance of Chisenhale Gallery, artist Luke Willis Thompson established a conversation with Reynolds, and her lawyer, and invited Reynolds to work with him on the production of an artwork. Thompson proposed to make an aesthetic response that could act as a ‘sister-image’ to Reynolds’ video broadcast. Thompson and Reynolds agreed to produce a film together, to be presented in London, and which would break with the well-known image of Reynolds, caught in a moment of violence and distributed within a constant flow of news.