Inspired by Jim Thompson’s A Road and a Memory, this video art follows the memories or experiences that has shaped someone’s life. It begins with a soft, sunlit path and gradually moves into heavier terrain, mud, heat, and confinement before shifting into a more interior, reflective space. A figure walks toward light, and time begins to loosen. In the final image, sand slips through a hand, suggesting the quiet realization that time moves on, yet certain roads remain with us, unchanged, no matter how far we travel.
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 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.
Algorithm, 2021Enigma, 2021Head in the Clouds, 2021Emergence, 2020Eyes on the Prize, 2020Flying or Falling, 2020Gwen, 2020Catherine, 2020Pearl, 2020Gary, 2020Tori, 2020Sandro, 2020Johnathan, 2020Mike, 2020Frances, 2020
Jen de Leon 