Filterveils

This piece extends my ongoing exploration of pop culture, identity, and image-making through the medium of face filters. Building on my 2005 project “Popstar Makeovers” in which I transformed gallery and event visitors into their favourite pop icons using face paint, I revisited the concept during the digital age. These augmented reality filters drew inspiration from the makeup of figures such as Britney Spears, Poison Ivy, and Boy George, to name a few.

Originally experienced on Instagram, these filters, no longer hosted, are now presented in a haunting new form: overlaid onto archival film footage, primarily from silent cinema. Actresses from 1910s vampire serials and dancers from lost ballets wear the cyber-glam masks of late 20th-century pop icons. The result is both uncanny and affectionate, a flickering tribute to pop mythologies and forgotten screen presences.

︎ ︎︎︎ Video 1, Video 2, Video 3, Video 4