Vhils
Scratching the Surface, 2010,
Museum of Contemporary Art SanDiego
Untitled, 2010, 1202 Kettner Boulevard, San Diego
Untitled, 2010, 11th Ave and Broadway, San Diego
Viva la Revolución, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego,
July 2010 – January 2011
I first encountered Vhils in 2008 at the The Cans Festival, the street art exhibition in the tunnels beneath London’s Waterloo Station. Walking through the cavernous exhibition, a ghostly face appeared at the end of the tunnel. I was immediately struck by the unique qualities of the work. Unfortunately, I was not able to meet the artist in person but the images and craftsmanship of his work stuck in my head. Several months later I traveled to New York City and encountered one of his faces carved into a wall in a dimly lit basement. On this occasion, I was able to meet him and was instantly surprised by his youth; at that time, he was barely 21. I was impressed that a young artist had developed such a refined and powerful technique. The singular method of carving faces onto walls, using the various layers to provide depth and contrast were unlike anything I had seen before. It was the combined freshness of the work and the fact that his practice involves removing matter, which led me to invite him to be part of Viva la Revolución.
As a member of a genre dominated by spray paint, stenciling and wheat paste, Vhils’ practice is singular. His work breaks stylistic and technical boundaries. Unlike most artists who predominantly add materials to surfaces and make art through a process of accumulation, Vhils work largely consists of a reductive process. Vhils reveals the past contained within a building’s architecture by literally chipping away at the layers of history. The chipping process, the removal of bits of wall, creates a contrast with the surface that eventually produces an image. The images created are portraits of anonymous individuals. Curiously, the individuals portrayed are not directly linked to the site where they are shown, they are nameless often found online or in old books and magazines. What is of key importance is that those portrayed reference those who have lived worked and died in these buildings. In chipping away, the many layers of history held within a building, Vhils reveals the indelible presence of our humanity.
Scratching the Surface and the two untitled murals were part of the Viva la Revolución exhibition at The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.
Guest Curator: Pedro Alonzo
IG @vhils /https://www.vhils.com/
Photo credits: Geoff Hargadon
Media
Viva la revolución - Vhils piece location - 11th Ave and Broadway, San Diego
Viva la revolución - Vhils piece location - 1202 Kettner Boulevard, San Diego