Marcel

Sakura explores personality through a merging of abstract or non-human elements with the recognisable traits and shapes of a portrait — using the willingness of the viewers brain to find a face from an unsuspecting origin. “Marcel” finds that human aspect in the subtlest denomination, the illusion of face projected through a hazy build up of spheres in a cloud-like sub-summation — the shapes carefully arranged to delicately suggest features and muscles in a use of positive and negative space. A set of six forms of unknown calibre (but reminiscent of organic cells, particularly sperm, or sheaths of wheat, or finger-like protrusions) penetrate into or out of the mass and suggest a violent and possibly sexualised combination. The work is afforded such a fine detail through the artists combined use of intaglio and chine-collé printing process, each allowing a very fine control of line, and the junction allows a textural variation and added depth between the base figure and the swarming cell-like entities.