Ian Lopez

“正面から！” (Shōmen kara!)  embraces my own discomfort through a deeply personal and reflective self-portraiture. Drawing upon the rich history of traditional sculpture, this work employs digital sculpting and fabrication techniques alongside projection-mapped video work that has been filmed over several months.

This sculpture possesses an otherworldly yet palpable quality, with sculpted marks and lines drawn directly from my skin through custom tools derived from scan data and images of my own body. With their subtle textures and imperfections, they embed traces of myself directly into the surface of the work.

With this project, I have created a large-scale representation of myself that is clearly inanimate, and yet, by projecting a real face that is actively emoting, may create an uncomfortable sensation for some viewers. This abject human response has been a crucial element underpinning much of my exploration this year, along with confronting my own sense of vulnerability.