MIXED MEDIA · 2024

Faces of Power

What does power look like up close?

PROBLEM_

A mixed media project on how leaders make decisions that affect millions. Close-up portraiture, interviews and layered physical materials, pushing at privacy, intimacy and authority.

MY ROLE_

Sole artist: concept, photography, material fabrication, and installation.

RESEARCH_

An extension of the South China Sea piece, moving from geopolitics to the people behind it. I wanted to know what it means to hold power, and what hides behind a public face.

Removing colour and context made the images feel universal — anyone could be in power.

KEY INSIGHT_

CHALLENGE_

Close-up portraits and interviews asking the discomforting personal questions powerful people are rarely asked publicly, with masks as a recurring motif after Brian Cattle.

PROCESS_

Multiple identities layered into single images using acetate and a custom-built A4 lightbox. Gelli printing added a propaganda aesthetic; photograms stripped context entirely.

SOLUTION_

A multi-part installation of Mod Roc masks, acetate lightbox prints, gelli prints and photograms, each on a different facet of how power is constructed, projected and concealed.

OUTCOMES_

Removing colour and context made the images feel universal: anyone could be in power. I'd push the interviews further and make them part of the installation itself.

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South China Sea

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