Artist statement

Drawing inspiration from the photorealistic practices of Gerhard Richter’s seminal 48 Portraits, and Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Homunculus is presented as a collated visage of a number of faces into one amalgam. This has been done through the harmonious combination between the principles of portraiture, photography, and drawing. Overall, the work exploits how the human brain uses pareidolia to construct familiar anthropomorphic images from inanimate stimuli, creating the illusion of recognition or familiarity, thus questioning the holistic interconnectivity between individuals and how we are each perceived by those in our surroundings.

Process

To create the work Homunculus, my art-making process used both photography and drawing. In the ideation process, I utilised digital photography, taking numerous portrait stills of my peers and compiling them into the final composite image using Adobe Photoshop. Using this software, I trimmed and arranged these stills into a grayscale cubic array, thus achieving the “patchwork” visage of Homunculus. Finally, through a delicate application of graphite sketching for form and charcoal for texture and shadows, the image was brought to fruition.

About the artist

After I complete my tutelage at Brisbane State High School, my prime intention is to continue my involvement within the creative world using various visual mediums. As such, my participation and selection in the Creative Generation Excellence Awards in Visual Art has given me professional recognition and encouraged me to pursue visual arts at a vocational level.