Self-portrait series

Visual Experiments: Part 3 looks at identity through characters that are intentionally unreal. These portraits aren’t meant to reveal anything—they’re built to conceal. Each figure is a constructed self, dressed in exaggeration and graphic detail, more performance than autobiography.

A recurring gesture runs through the series: the eyes are always hidden or transformed. It’s a way of protecting what feels private, but also a way of shifting attention to everything else—the posture, the materials, the atmosphere around the face. When the gaze disappears, interpretation becomes less certain, and the viewer has to meet the work on different terms.

These images play with the space between who we are, who we present, and who we invent. They’re masks, but intentionally so—designed to explore identity without giving it away.