In this composition of sepia
and coppery tones, Vhils captures a fragment of a metro carriage as a scene
suspended between apparition and dissolution. Behind the window, the passengers
appear enclosed in a silent proximity where gazes never truly meet. Some faces
seem absorbed in a distant interiority, while others fix on the exterior with
an almost frontal intensity, as though mentally traversing a space different
from the one they physically occupy. Made through a reversed silkscreen
process, the work is obtained by subtraction: acid dissolves the dark ink
deposited on the paper to bring forth the image through progressive lightening
of the surface. This treatment produces zones of blur, transparencies and
unstable depths that recall the shifting reflections of metro windows or the
fragmentary perception of daily journeys. The image thus seems to oscillate
between documentary presence and diffuse recollection, like an urban memory in
the act of forming and effacing itself simultaneously.