Art News & Features

Face-Devouring Photography By Lucas Simões

Vee Hua 華婷婷1 min readJune 25, 2012Add comment

I’m not sure what it is about our nature that makes us constantly want to mutilate faces — and maybe that is just the simplest explanation for all of our recent zombie activity — but sometimes there’s just nothing more carnally fulfilling than running paper faces under an acid bath of collage, painting, mixed media, whatever. Brazilian artist Lucas Simões burns photographic portraits, to give them such personality that their remains sometimes come across as grotesque three-headed beasts (ausência series) and sometimes remind us of sparking memories of the past (quem brinca com fogo series). It takes skills to draw such diversity from such a simple and carnal concept, and for it to evoke such a suprising range of emotions, including sadness, fear, and compassion.

ausencia Series

quem brinca com fogo Series

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Vee Hua 華婷婷

Vee Hua 華婷婷 (they/them) is a writer, filmmaker, and organizer with semi-nomadic tendencies. Much of their work unifies their metaphysical interests with their belief that art can positively transform the self and society. They are the Editor-in-Chief of REDEFINE, Interim Managing Editor of South Seattle Emerald, and Co-Chair of the Seattle Arts Commission. They also previously served as the Executive Director of the interdisciplinary community hub, Northwest Film Forum, where they played a key role in making the space more welcoming and accessible for diverse audiences.

Vee has two narrative short films. Searching Skies (2017) touches on Syrian refugee resettlement in the United States; with it, they helped co-organize The Seventh Art Stand, a national film and civil rights discussion series against Islamophobia. Reckless Spirits (2022) is a metaphysical, multi-lingual POC buddy comedy for a bleak new era, in anticipation of a feature-length project.

Vee is passionate about cultural space, the environment, and finding ways to covertly and overtly disrupt oppressive structures. They also regularly share observational human stories through their storytelling newsletter, RAMBLIN’ WITH VEE!, and are pursuing a Master’s in Tribal Resource and Environmental Stewardship under the Native American Studies Department at the University of Minnesota.

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