In Your Face

This is a project I did as a visiting artist at the University of Hawaii in March 2011. Working with students in the UH Hilo Art 300: Intermediate Studio Seminar class, I began by discussing information and ideas that were relevant to them. Establishing a loose collaborative dialogue, I used that to generate a project and material for us to work with.

In Your Face explores the idea of invasive information, as it relates to todays culture of social media. I asked students to mine their Facebook walls,  phone texts and email, choosing passages to write out  by hand, and to then photograph each other in tightly framed shots. Using these elements, I created composites of each face layered over with handwritten text. We took these images and embedded them into plastic emulsion, using a transfer process to remove the paper backing. Depending on each persons handiwork, the images deteriorated and broke down in parts, removed by the rubbing motions, or remained partially hidden by thin hazy layers of paper pulp.