In mask-like portraits, simple shapes such as triangles, lines and circles arouse immediate recognition: round eyes stare at us, angry, surprised happy or timid. Raymond Lemstra (1978, NL) is fascinated by the phenomenon of pareidolia: the imagined perception of a pattern or meaning in for instance a cloud or rock and ascribing human features to it.
He lived in Seoul (South Korea) from 2016 to 2019. The numerous posters and stickers in the streetscape served as a guideline for his journey through his new home town. They served as a new layer to Lemstra’s surroundings. Prising the paper, the ‘skin’ of the city, from walls in dark alleyways, he then used it as rough backgrounds for his paintings.