beneath the surface
What we show is who we are?
With Beneath the Surface I show what happens when you don't show the whole face, but instead highlight fragments. Because even when you show everything, something always remains hidden.
Do we really see the other person fully? What remains under the surface?
What is visible is just a layer; an exterior that we polish up nicely. But just below the surface is the real person. Fuller, more complex, more layered.
This series goes beyond the outside and actually makes the hidden layers visible. And tangible.
windows of the soul
Each work in the series has two windows through which you look inside. Always the same shape, but placed differently each time. The window defines the frame: what becomes visible and what remains hidden.
An eye, part of the mouth.... These fragments I embroider by hand: intense, detailed and in motion. Whereas the rest of the face is tufted coarsely and colourfully, made up of planes that suggest energy rather than realism. It is precisely this contrast that makes tangible what becomes visible and what remains behind the surface.
A tension emerges between detail and abstraction, between proximity and distance.
A stratification emerges. Fragmentation rather than completeness.
More than a portrait
The combination of tufting and embroidery gives each work its layering.
Fast, expressive surfaces juxtaposed with slow, attentive stitches. It gives a relief that makes the tension palpable: threads sticking out next to lines that lie deeper.
Tens of thousands of stitches, focus and attention, grow into portraits that are more than just faces . They are portraits that show that there is always more lurking beneath the surface.
which touches you
A work from Beneath the Surface brings that layering to your own environment.
The windows attract your gaze. They invite you to really look. Again and again.
The colours and surfaces bring energy, and the voids leave room for silence and interpretation.
They are portraits that do not tell you everything, but rather take you into what is not immediately visible. And that it is precisely there, below the surface, that the real encounter begins.
This series comprises four works. Three have been completed, one of which has already found a new destination.
I can tailor the fourth work to your space in format and execution.
