Ian Phillips McLaren (b. 1960) is a British contemporary artist, his varied practice combines contemporary and 19th century photographic processes, video, sculpture, performance and animation.

His body of work examines dementia as a state of being, memory, personal identity and the construction of self in our visual culture, portraiture and self-representation.

Ian’s current work, The ‘Self’ & The ‘Other’ is an exploration of the ‘Self’ through the lens of ancient Roman portraiture – The ‘Other’ referring to the ways in which identities are formed.

“By combining traditional 5×4 inch analogue paper negatives of my self with hybrid digital negatives of ancient Roman portraits and fragments, I’m re-imagining the historical self-portrait, in a similar vein to how the Romans re-imagined (Hellenistic) Greek art for their own purposes”.