Vhils carves, scrapes,
excavates. He removes matter to bring forth what lies beneath, in the manner of
an archaeologist. This inversion of the usual practice, in which the artist
adds to the world, takes on its full meaning in the context of the non-place.
If these spaces erase the individual within the flow, the work performs the
opposite movement: it recovers, beneath the smooth surface, the faces, the
bodies, the presences that circulation tends to dissolve. The textured surface
of this composition reveals ghostly faces beneath layers of white and vibrant
colour. Created by cutting into layered posters, the work presents multiple
human faces emerging from a chaotic ground of torn paper and underlying
advertisements, suggesting themes of anonymity and collective memory within the
urban fabric. This process confers upon the work a sense of archaeological
discovery, as though the artist were unearthing stories and narratives hidden
within the urban environment. The faces, rendered with a raw, almost sculptural
quality, appear as silent witnesses or forgotten inhabitants, their expressions
ranging from contemplative to nearly spectral.