Janieta Eyre facts for kids

Janieta Eyre is a photographer born in Britain who now lives in Kingston, Canada. She is famous for her unique self-portraits. In her art, she often shows herself as a pair of twins. This helps her explore ideas about having many different identities. Janieta uses special props and costumes to make her pictures look unusual and thought-provoking.

Her artwork has been displayed in many places. You can find her exhibitions across Canada and the United States. Her photos have also been shown in countries like Italy, Spain, Iceland, and Germany. In 1997, Janieta Eyre won the Duke and Duchess of York Award for Photography. Her work also inspired a music video for the Canadian singer-songwriter JF Robitaille in 2013.

About Janieta Eyre

Janieta Eyre was born in London, England, in 1971. She studied Philosophy at the University of Toronto. Later, she took photography classes at the Ontario College of Art and Design. She started her professional photography career in 1995.

Her journey into visual art began when she was in high school. At one point, Janieta found it hard to speak. She learned that being quiet could make you feel invisible. She later found her voice again, but she always remembered what it felt like to be an unseen observer. Janieta started her creative path as a writer. However, she found that images could have a bigger impact in North America.

Her Photographic Art

Janieta Eyre's photographs combine performance, photography, and digital art. Her work is often compared to early female photographers like Claude Cahun and Cindy Sherman. She also shares similarities with modern artists such as Mariko Mori.

Eyre creates photos that look a bit like old pictures from the 1800s. Back then, some photographers tried to capture "spirits" in their pictures. Janieta doesn't try to trick anyone. Instead, she shows that her photos are carefully set up. She paints and decorates rooms in her apartment to create detailed scenes. Her pictures are like puzzles, full of hidden meanings. She uses many costumes and objects to make her subjects look dreamlike. Her photos are rich in atmosphere and tell a story. They explore how we see ourselves and others. She uses bright colors and flat, painted backgrounds. These familiar, almost childlike settings draw us into her amazing world.

Janieta often changes herself into different characters. She uses a technique called double-exposure photography to create a surreal twin of herself. This means she takes two pictures on the same film or uses digital tools to combine them. This way, she can hide her own face and the exact meaning of her stories. Even though she says she uses herself as a model for convenience, her self-portraits deeply explore questions about identity. Janieta Eyre's self-portraits often feature twin-like figures or other unusual characters. These works explore ideas about how we present ourselves to the world and how society accepts us. She has sometimes shared a story about having a twin who passed away at birth. This idea of having "two images of myself" inspires her art. She believes that seeing a twin in art shows us that we are not alone. We exist in relation to others.

Eyre gets ideas from things that are unseen, like images from her dreams. She describes her work as collecting impossible memories. She carefully documents a world that isn't real. Instead of showing her everyday life, she captures an invisible one. She builds a life story that is more about what's possible than what's strictly true. Janieta takes an intuitive approach to her art. She sees her photographs as a way to heal and connect with herself. She hopes her personal art can help others feel more connected too. Janieta is interested in exploring our inner lives. She thinks of her photography as a type of meditation.

Exhibitions

Incarnations

This was Janieta Eyre's first solo exhibition. It was first shown in Toronto in 1995. The exhibition was inspired by paintings and a novel called Coraline. Her photos in this series were about "creating a life story based on what's possible, not just reality." Her imaginary characters suggest that who we are can change and isn't fixed. One photo, The Day I Gave Birth to My Mother, was inspired by a Buddhist saying: "Who were you and what did you look like before your parents were born?"

Lady Lazarus

This exhibition first appeared in New York in 1999. It later traveled to Vancouver and Italy. The title comes from a poem by Sylvia Plath called "Lady Lazarus". It was inspired by the line, "Dying/Is an art, like everything else." This series explores Janieta's interest in death, especially her own. In about 30 stylish photos, she showed different ways she might pass away. The photos show the artist in staged death poses. For example, she might be in a bathtub with a knife nearby, or leaning on an open oven door. These pictures are powerful and make you think.

Motherhood & Natural History Museum

This exhibition opened in 2002 in Toronto and New York. This series looks at the journey of pregnancy and giving birth in an unusual way. It was shown as large photographs. It also included a nine-minute video. In the video, Janieta, who was pregnant, performed symbolic actions related to childbirth.

In The Scream Of Things

Janieta Eyre usually kept her child out of her artwork. However, when her daughter, Sadie Levine, turned seven, she wanted to know why she wasn't in any of her mother's photos. This led to a series of striking pictures. They were shown in Montreal and Madrid in 2008. The images show a young girl in fine clothes, often kneeling or lying on furniture. Her eyes might be covered, or butterflies might be flying around her. This mysterious child seems to fit into these staged rooms, but also looks like she's from another world.

The Mute Book

This exhibition was first shown in Montreal in 2012. The idea for The Mute Book came from a common feeling: winter sadness and not wanting to get out of pajamas. Janieta connected this feeling to an old circus photo of a performer dressed half as a man and half as a woman. She decided to create a series of "halves." One half would look neat and polite, while the other half would seem tired and sad. She sewed costumes with very different colors and patterns for this. The title came from Liber Mutus (Mute Book). This was a 17th-century book with pictures that showed how to change matter and oneself.

I Should Have Begun With This

This is a newer series of photographs. It explores the potential of girls in society. These black and white portraits focus on a girl. She is shown with a changing landscape. The photos capture moments of change. They speak to the hidden abilities of girls just before they become adults. They also show a sense of hope and possibility.

Film Work

Janieta Eyre's first film is a 13-minute short called Now We Understand Each Other. It is based on a short story she wrote when she was seventeen. The story was about an older woman who believed two dolls were her children. It also drew from a play she wrote about family challenges. The main character, played by Kate Trotter, talks to twin dolls. She believes they are her daughters and tells them about past relationships. The film explores how past events shape who we become. It also looks at the idea of a mother having children she doesn't like.

Film Performances

• Letters from Home, directed by Mike Hoolboom, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, 1996.
• Scum, part of House of Pain, directed by Mike Hoolboom, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, 1995.

Selected Public Collections

• Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal
• Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
• National Gallery of Art, Reykjavik, Iceland
• Ciudad de Cultura, Fundacion Municipal, Salamanca, Spain
• Bailey & Company, Inc., Toronto
• Shadow Play, Toronto
• Microsoft, Seattle, Washington
• Seymour Collection, Vancouver, British Columbia
• Art Gallery of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario
• Margulies Collection, Miami, Florida
• Hart House, University of Toronto
• Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa