‘face it’ explores how we see each other in our increasingly virtual society.

There are now 4 billion of us more connected than ever before, directly or indirectly through modern technology and devices. But is this changing how we perceive one another ? We’re bombarded by a constant stream of populist images, borrowed opinions and projections of how others would like us to see them. To what extent do we filter out these false portrayals and distill them into homogenous amorphous personalities ?

“I had this idea for months but didn't know how to execute. Then I saw a documentary about Adolf Eichmann’s war crimes trial in Israel. At the trial, when he was presented with witnesses, the look on Eichmann’s face was so intense, so evil and so unrepentant. It made me think about how, in order to kill so many millions of innocent people, he must not have seen humans as humans, but as shapes or objects without personality. 

This led me to consider whether this is how we now see each other through the veil of social media. I translated this idea onto canvas in the form of human-shaped objects in a single colour. I’ve painted people in a way that requires an effort to understand the real person … beyond what is visible on the surface. At the same time, I also wanted to bring something new, something unique to my art, so I took a chance and changed my style completely. Instead of highly-detailed portraits using a tropical colour palette, for this collection I’ve used softer pastel colours and loose brush and knife strokes to achieve minimal human features and expressions.”