Anonymous

Series ( 2018-2019), multiple media

This series is composed of the results of several experiments, aiming to investigate the subtle relationship between the concepts of appearance and disappearance in drawings and images.

It started with an occasion where I discovered a random box of discarded vernacular photos beside a public garbage can. Those negative films and photo prints are wet, dusty, scratched, and some of them are badly damaged that we can barely recognize them. By reproduce those images in the form of drawings, and recreate the natural degradation of water and dust on them, these works proposing a means of explore the poetic side of this anonymous common story.

Among the photos I found, a portrait of a young girl specifically catching me. Her dark, hidden face looks strangely familiar. Yet none of my memories can match. So I searched the internet for this photo, and as expected, no information was found. However, at the same time as this research, the internet has offered me many similar images. Paintings, photos, drawings, these portraits came from different eras and cultures, but their gestures and gazes are almost indistinguishable. By uploading this photo, an invisible connection that can span time and space has been established. I decided to print those pictures out and made them merge. Two faces melted and then immediately separated. Her face becomes blurry while being clear: a redouble face. Each image carries its memory’s context and invited viewers to decipher them. Thus, another dimension will be open up by their rejoice, her unknown context will be reconstructed by our gaze.