Character Studies examines the porous boundary between authenticity and performance through the evolving personas we adopt to be understood, protected, or desired. Drawing from digital life, domestic ritual, and lived queer experience, The Breslin explores how selfhood becomes a curated act shaped by intimacy, audience, and survival.

The work reflects on code switching, self-invention, and the emotional labor of being seen. These images exist as iterative avatars, part confession and part performance, inviting viewers to consider their own role within para-social exchange. In a world where everything can be commodified, The Breslin asks what it means to construct a self that is both vulnerable and intentional.

Exhibition Essay

I talk to a lot of people. Artists, entrepreneurs, content creators, curators, gallerists, tarot readers, and therapists, just to name a few. All from different walks of life, all experiencing their own degrees of otherness. I like to think of myself as a collector of stories gathered through everyday archaeology, brushing dust off the small truths people leave behind.

The individuals I can remember all have one thing in common. They are chameleons. They bend and adapt their essence to forge a connection for any number of reasons. They can code switch and create a persona that feels genuine. It is a skill almost as good as Rumpelstiltskin spinning straw into gold, and sometimes just as treacherous and transactional. One idea I am revisiting is a misconception I held for a long time, the belief that a persona is always disingenuous. The truth is I have begun creating a few of my own.

As a queer person my motivations for adapting in social situations range wildly, from sympathetic appeal to personal safety, with a whole spectrum of quiet erasure in between. I have lived many lives, some more interesting than others, and each version taught me something about who I needed to be in order to survive or be understood. I am starting to understand the value of the avatar and the archetype, especially as I continue curating my life as a brand. It is uncomfortable work, something like sculpting myself from the outside in. Community can be a weapon, but I keep hoping it can be my, or our, salvation.

Taking pictures of yourself is not a glamorous process. It is awkward and frustrating, and the best shot is usually captured moments before collapse. These character studies want to be seen. They change, and so do I. Just not always in ways I planned. And yes, I really want you to like them. Remember, everything is for sale, darlin’. And as Sandra Bernhard already told us, without you I’m nothing.