The Phases of the Faces
Our faces, which were previously highly personal, are now constantly shared, modified, and divided across the internet. This project explores that shift, arguing that, while we differ in appearance, our facial characteristics, when disassembled and reassembled, reveal surprising patterns of similarity. It's a reflection on the paradox of human resemblance and individuality, heightened in an age where selfhood is increasingly linked to visual expression.
Inspired by David Hockney’s Joiners, which assemble fragmented photographs to create a composite narrative, ‘The Phases of the Faces’ pushes this concept into a new dimension—blending digital portraiture and analogue manipulation to explore the limits of photographic truth.
The piece is a mixed-media image study constructed around images of 21 Indian individuals. Their characteristics are analogously blended into different heads, mirroring our hypermediated situation.
The finished imagery is both familiar and unfamiliar, intimate and anonymous. It raises concerns about authenticity, connection, and what it means to be human in an age when we largely interact with ourselves and others through images. It reflects on the digital age's collapse of distance, identity, and reality by combining multiple images into one.
This series was part of the group exhibition ‘Being Hyper Human’, exhibited at the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Art and Design Gallery in New York, USA, and Venkatappa Art Gallery in Bangalore, India. The exhibition reflected on how photography and digital culture blur the boundaries between reality, representation, and identity. The project was also featured in The Hindu and Deccan Herald.
The Phases of the Faces
Our faces, which were previously highly personal, are now constantly shared, modified, and divided across the internet. This project explores that shift, arguing that while we differ in appearance, our facial characteristics, when disassembled and reassembled, reveal surprising patterns of similarity.
Inspired by David Hockney’s Joiners, the work blends digital portraiture and analogue manipulation to explore the limits of photographic truth.
The piece is a mixed-media image study constructed around images of 21 Indian individuals. Their characteristics are analogously blended into different heads, mirroring our hypermediated situation.
The finished imagery is both familiar and unfamiliar, intimate and anonymous. It raises concerns about authenticity, connection, and what it means to be human in an age when we largely interact with ourselves and others through images. It reflects on the digital age's collapse of distance, identity, and reality by combining multiple images into one.
This series was part of the exhibition Being Hyper Human, shown at the
Fashion Institute of Technology’s Art and Design Gallery in New York and
Venkatappa Art Gallery in Bangalore.
The project was also featured in The Hindu and Deccan Herald.