Jeff Salomon

Drawing upon Carl Jung's archetype of the Anima and Animus, this body of work explores identity as a dynamic relationship between internal experience and external definition. My Anima employs a rigid geometric structure composed of right angles and fixed forms, reflecting the social labels and categories through which identity is often assigned and understood. In contrast, lived identity is rarely fixed, existing instead along a fluid and shifting spectrum.

Created several years later, Animamus revisits these ideas through the image of a balanced relationship between masculine and feminine qualities. While the work suggests equilibrium, the target-like bubble levels imply that such balance can itself become a source of scrutiny. What appears balanced internally may be perceived as imbalance by external social norms, placing a figurative target on those who exist between prescribed categories. Together, the works examine the ongoing negotiation between self-definition and the systems that seek to define us.