Paintings by Belgian Artist Nele Tas
text by Neeshad Patel
Nele Tas is a Belgian artist with a striking series of portraits which address the changing role of identity in modern day culture. He hones in on the diminishing individuality of each person, and the movement towards “belonging to the masses”, as he describes it. What he does is to elevate the angle of view of the subject from the viewers perspective, creating more of a feeling of voyeurism and reducing the intimacy. Details are blurred, and identities removed creating a haunting anonymity and a noticeable level of detachment. Perhaps it is a statement about the side effect of this merging of the masses that he sees in society, a statement that each individual connection is reduced to accomodate for the fusion of many – width is imposed at the sacrifice of depth. The end result is a sense of distance between you and the subject, as the minutia of facial characteristics are removed. What is left is a beautiful composition of color and elegantly melancholic gestures.
Images courtesy of Nele Tas.