The Show Your ID show is an exhibition of portraits and documents produced by twenty-one artists and opening at HQ July 1. HQ selected the work on the basis of whether or not it could be accepted by the government for release as official ID. Each artist has been asked to submit a small portrait and fill out a form. The form the artists complete may or may not resemble an I-92 or other similar application for immigration forms.

In the end, one of the main questions raised by an exhibition of I.D. portraits is; what is the actual relationship an individual has to the documents of their identity? In some of the work the connection is obvious. One example, a collection of forms and documents gathered by writer Joelle Hann for the genuine purpose of applying for her US green card. Hann’s work shows a close resemblance to Hann and is certainly a fair documentation of her as she interfaces with the requirements of immigration.

In the same show, a whole cluster of identities are brought out in a drawing by Melissa Schubeck. The drawing consists of several dozen faces of realtors taken form their business cards. With the realtor portraits, we have a very different form of ID. These are real people but their personalities have been interpreted by Schubeck only to take on completely independent dispositions. This is the case even when all of the realtors have filled out the form with information closely resembling Schubeck herself. In both the work of Hann and Schubeck identification documents take on their own personalities, which in turn, add even more questions to the overall discussion concerning documents and individuals.

Artists: AIMAI REPORTER ALISON LEVY BENJAMIN EVANS BRANDON ZAMORA CHARMAINE WHEATLEY CINDY YIP DIANA MARTINEZ ERIN HALL GREGORY REYNOLDS JEFF MACALUSO JESSICA THOMPSON JOELLE HANN JOHN PLEASE KATIE LAZAROWICZ KEN YIP MELISSA SCHUBECK MIKE ESTABROOKE PATRICIA VALENCIA RYAN DAWALT STEVEN CHARLES MANALE TANIA LEWIS TIM MCGARRY TRONG NGUYEN