Brazilian Artist Envelops His Head With Different Materials in an Unusual Self-Portrait Series

Brazilian artist Edu Monteiro has created autorretrato sensorial (sensory self-portrait), an unusual self-portrait series in which he completely enveloped his head in various materials such as food, cigarettes, twine, coal, toys, and meat. Monteiro explained that this project was an experiment with identity.

(translated) Like the suicide bomber, who gives up his identity in the name of an ideology, Edu Monteiro hides his face under masks obscuring their human condition as it transforms into a hybrid being. The difference, however, lies in the artist achieves poetic, brutal on the one hand, full of humor on the other. The textures that the photographer seeks in organic elements -plants, peppers and coals – close to what you see in Arcimboldo paintings: portraits that confuse the senses to misrepresent nature itself. Already the images he gets through the merger of the human body with artificial body – cigarettes and stuffed animals – refer to a dark or decadent future, inhabited by mutant creatures.

EduMonteiro05

EduMonteiro04

EduMonteiro08

EduMonteiro02

EduMonteiro06

EduMonteiro10

EduMonteiro09

via Lens Culture

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.