Distorted faces appear in the video work Face Lift, reminding us how our portraits are inevitably registered, analyzed, and surveilled when we unlock our phones, are identified by CCTV cameras, and recognized on social media. In the work, artist Diana Velasco has  3D-scanned her own self-portraits before turning the scans inside out, deliberately distorting them. Resembling archaic portraits missing noses and other body parts due to the wear and tear of time, the work connects the history of portraits to modern-day facial recognition and surveillance.

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                                                    Ida Schyum

cand.mag in art history