A new exhibition by Swiss artist Daniele Buetti, Are you talking to me?, aims to reinvent the ways we view portraiture by merging the subject with the viewer. Currently on view at Bernard Knaus gallery in Frankfurt am Main, the exhibition presents a playful selection of works that allow the viewer to place themselves into familiar celebrity portraits of the likes of Princess Diana, Basquiat and Elvis. Buetti snips out the famous face, jagged around the edges, and layers the image on top of a mirror — bringing a whole new meaning to the term ‘self-portrait’.
Buetti, recognised for his pop art approach, is perhaps best known for his series Looking for Love, spanning 1996-2001. In this series, he created portraits of famous models that imagined scars and tattoos staining their skin, but were in fact etched onto the back of the photos in ink. This deliberate ink spill gave the appearance of body modifications on the airbrushed and angelic models. Meanwhile, in his latest work, he has taken photo alteration one step further.
Are you talking to me? invites viewers to place themselves well and truly into his work in an artful take on fairground cut-out faces. Instead of looking at famous people, we’re confronted with ourselves. By replacing the famous faces with our own self-image, Buetti emphasises the contemporary obsession with beauty as well as our unhealthy relationship with celebrity culture. In these carefully designed pieces, we become one with the celebrities we are so obsessed with, accentuating our voyeurism. At the same time, however, these composite images make a poignant and tender suggestion — by swapping their faces for ours, we are given the opportunity to place ourselves in the shoes of these personalities, who have been distorted and flattened by celebrity culture. Buetti gives us the chance to see them as people.
Over all, Buetti’s work doesn’t intend to take itself too seriously, which is what makes these pieces so accessible and fun. It’s hard not to smile when you catch your reflection in one of these pieces. We all know that look, when you go into a gallery ready to pull the art apart, but this time the artist has chosen to turn it right back at you and let you see for yourself just how silly you look.
Are you talking to me? is currently on display at the Bernhard Knaus gallery until January 26, 2019.
All images courtesy of the Bernhard Knaus Gallery.