Monica Rohan Explores Self Portraiture Through Obscurity

Artist Mon­i­ca Rohan com­bines ele­ments of real­ism and fan­ta­sy to cre­ate works that are as beau­ti­ful as they are allur­ing. They’re inspired by a “rur­al-idyll of a child­hood in South East Queens­land” and 19th cen­tu­ry nov­els. Each con­tem­plates the genre of auto­bi­og­ra­phy, using this form of mys­te­ri­ous self por­trai­ture to do so. Here, the fig­ures’ faces are obscured by col­or­ful blooms, tall grass, and pat­terned fab­rics. Though they’re par­tial­ly ground­ed in some sort of space, the area around the sub­jects is emp­ty, giv­ing us the feel­ing that these peo­ple are float­ing in some sort of abyss.