Imago Historicus/Time Traveler  2012-...

Time Traveler is not a frivolous costume dress-up. It is an attempt in reclaiming the history of those whose lives were never documented as those of the upper classes. The history of portraiture is the history of privilege.

Someone shows me a photograph of his grandfather, and someone else, with pride, the painting of his great-great-grandmother. Some of us have documents proving a familial relationship to individuals living hundreds of years ago. Lucky are those who can trace their ancestors so far back. But then again, maybe it doesn’t matter, because every single person is the descendant of somebody; somebody from a particular country, or a particular nation. There is pride in it. We have a tremendous need for knowing at least a scrap of our own history. It simply helps us in our existence to know, where we came from. But, do we really know?

Medium: Pencil drawing, laser print on paper/ acrylic on wood panel, or acrylic on canvas

Method: The contemporary sitter’s face is digitally interfaced with a portrait of a historical figure. Small fragments of the digital image; eyes, hands, other punctum are printed on the paper. The portrait is drawn in pencil. Next, the drawing is cut up and the pieces have been adhered to the stretched canvas or wood panel. The acrylic painting around the paper drawing pieces provides the background and colour. The whole work is promptly varnished in many layers embedding the images in resin, reminiscent of insects preserved in amber.