Faces of Power
What does power look like up close?
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.
Sole artist: concept, photography, material fabrication, and installation.
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_
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.
Multiple identities layered into single images using acetate and a custom-built A4 lightbox. Gelli printing added a propaganda aesthetic; photograms stripped context entirely.
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.
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.