Firdaus Adhitya is a 26 year old artist from Indonesia who recently joined the Emergent Art Space community with a series of monochromatic mixed-media portraits.  EAS artist Maddie Blake recently interviewed Firdaus about his work and process:

MB : Is this the same man in each picture?

FA : Yes, each picture is a self-portrait, but of different personalities.

MB : Describe your artistic process with these portraits?

FA : First, I took a portrait of myself, using a digital camera and DIY lamp. Then I edited it with Photoshop to create the distorted image. From this image I know the direction and distortion for the paintings.

MB : How does the title "Bias or Refraction" relates to these pictures?

FA : Bias is Indonesian language for refraction, just like a light bent by a prism. There is one source of light, me, which penetrates a prism, my environment like family, friends, work, etc, and spreads many lights- my personality.

MB : How have your portraits evolved to this point? Have you always drawn faces skewed like this?

FA : I have been really inspired by Andre Kertez, a photographer who used distorted mirrors to take pictures. And this technique really caught my attention. After much contemplation, I realized that my personality bends all the time, for example, when I deal with my family, friends, boss, girlfriend, or someone I barely know. And at some point, I really don't know who I am. Do I trust myself? What am I doing? I come up with more questions to myself, and with these questions, I begin to doubt myself. That's why my self-portraits are distorted. The environment affects my personality, just like a chameleon who adjusts with every environment.

MB : I think the absence of color makes these images much more powerful. What do you think about your use of a monochromatic color scheme?

FA :  I'm not into color...Usually I'm using monochrome for my artworks. Sometimes color can distract my message. I like the depth of image, it occurs to me that monochromatic is the best way to achieve the deepness. With monochromatic images, the viewer feels nostalgic, which is what I aimed for from the start. My art speaks about my personality, and I think when we talk about this, memories are the biggest part that mold someone’s personality.