Jen de Leon

Artist · Designer · Educator

maskARade

This series combines painting, animation, and augmented reality (AR) as primary mediums to explore hidden emotions. As a participatory portraiture project, maskARade explores the masks we often wear to hide our emotions from others because of societal expectations.

Unmasked

Unmasked is a participatory portrait project that captures the individuals’ emotional response to COVID-19. Although face masks are an important measure to effectively decrease the chance of transmitting certain respiratory viruses such as coronavirus, the masks we have been wearing throughout the pandemic hide our facial expressions and negatively affect our social interactions. This video art promotes emotional awareness among its participants and allows the viewers a glimpse into the social and psychological impact of the health crisis and subsequent quarantine. Participants pose for photos and record their voices to express their feelings about the ongoing global pandemic. Each photograph serves as a reference for digital portrait paintings, which are then animated by creating face morphs between still frames, while the same word—pandemic—is repeated in a tone that matches each emotion.

Portraiture