Ongoing series since 2015: Fiktional collage heads and character studies
DOPPEL DOPPEL @ Kanya&Kage artspace, Berlin 2023, (Photo: Adam Naparty)
"Face Time", @ Pretty Portal Galerie, Düsseldorf 2015
"Face Time" (Detail), @ 30works Galerie, Köln 2015
"Face Time" Mural, Berlin 2015 (Photo: Hans Friedrich / 20zollmedia.com)
"Face Time – Wir alle hier gehören zum Wir", Mural, Berlin 2023
For these collaged character studies, the art duo cuts up a wide variety of faces into individual parts. As in an identikit picture catalogue, the artists then stagger these elements and merge them into new likenesses in a “glitchy” way.
With their Dadaist patchwork identities Various & Gould subvert common beauty ideals and celebrate human diversity. Even if their characters are fictitious, they appear more authentic than many of the glossy faces from beauty shots represented in the daily media.
In 2015, Various & Gould’s 350 m² mural “Face Time” was the first time they painterly translated their signature style of silkscreen and collage into such a dimension.
“For those of you familiar with the mix-n-match limbs, torsos, and heads that V&G have used previously, you can see that the innovative experimenters have evolved their collage style to something new. It’s exactly the same, but completely different.”
Jaime Rojo & Steven P. Harrington, authors and curators, article on Brooklyn Street Art (BSA), 2015
With the “Face Time” mural Various & Gould adaptet their significant mix of screen-print and collage for the first time in a painterly manner to a large scale (350 m²).
More information about the “Face Time” mural
In 2023 Various & Gould painted a second Face Time mural in Berlin.