URthe1 explores the tension between individuality and multiplicity in the construction of identity. Drawing on pareidolia, emojis, and vector aesthetics, the series humorously parallels processes of botanical reproduction with the logic of digital replication. Faces are reduced to a minimal set of features(an iris, the tip of a nose, a pair of lips) evoking both the language of emojis and the simplicity of rag dolls. Out of this economy of signs emerges a cast of characters who mirror one another in poses, gazes, and gestures, as if caught in an endless cycle of cloned behaviors.
Though rooted in a digital imaginary, the works are painted using traditional techniques, heightening the tension between the physical and the virtual. Each portrait becomes a playful yet critical reflection on identity as mask, caricature, and performance within a culture of repetition and virality.
Positioned within my broader research on portraiture in the digital age, URthe1 engages with the politics of cuteness, naïve aesthetics, and the serial construction of the self. It is an expanding project that also serves as a nucleus for further works and curatorial proposals.