2025 Finalists

The presented artwork features a fragment of my brother’s face when he was a baby. Taken from a family album, then cropped into a desired fragment and being put into a different context, the image sort of loses its link to any relations or a specific person. Whether brother or not, family or a stranger, doesn’t have much meaning anymore. The artwork starts to explore the boundaries of what is personal and private, leaving many parts of a person’s identity hidden. However, the scratch on the nose suggests a humanly experience – when a baby begins to discover the world around it, many things can happen. His fleshy and plump cheeks speak about the innocence of infancy and childhood, as well as the (not always) small price we have to pay to be human. The presented work is painted in extremely thin and rather few layers – almost to the point of questioning whether any paint was used at all. Diluted with a lot of paint thinner, the image is rubbed into the canvas leaving no room for mistakes or erasure. Just like the photographs in our family albums, where (bitter)sweet moments are frozen for eternity, or as long as we remember them. By imitating the photographic surface, the image leaves viewers on their tippy toes, waiting for an answer whether the picture just began to develop or is already fading.

(2/25)