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| One of the posters that Vhils carved to reveal a face |
I didn't have enough of an art fix at Art Basel, and after dim sum today at Lei Garden in IFC, I headed out to the ferry pier and noticed there was an art exhibition on the roof of Pier 4, where the ferry goes to Lamma Island.
The artist is Portuguese Alexandre Farto, best known as Vhils, who splits his time between here and Lisbon. "Debris" is his first solo exhibition in Hong Kong and it was presented by Hong Kong Contemporary Art (HKCA).
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| Striking portraits carved from styrofoam |
The roof is an interesting space, and a temporary shelter was created for the show. It's not so large that the artist feel pressure to fill the space, but also large enough to hang big pieces, even multimedia work.
Vhils is a street artist who creatively uses discarded materials to make his art, mostly carving portraits into them to reveal layers that create depth and texture.
The first few pieces are of posters that have been layered on top of each other, and he paints the top with white paint before carving faces on them. The carving reveals the previous layers in colours and designs that are completely haphazard.
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| Fantastic multimedia piece using stencils on screens |
When an artist goes with the flow, you can tell he or she is very confident to let things happen the way they do, or is curious to see what lies beneath.
He also does this with metal, using acid to eat into it to create his designs, or carving on discarded wooden doors. When I was photographing these pieces on my smartphone, the images seemed even clearer through the frame -- much like the Space Invader exhibition which was interesting.
The concept of "carving" extends to multimedia. In one large room, there are a series of TV monitors set up with shows going on in Chinese and English, and he places stencils of faces on top.
