Authentic

This work depicts fragmented identity and hypocrisy as a coping mechanism through a bust featuring two fused, distorted, and pierced faces, which conveys the instability of an individual forced to alter their appearance in response to the gazes of those around them. The jagged white lines, the black-painted head, the embedded nails, and the pedestal marked by paint, rust, screws, and traces of material graphically embody inner tensions, accumulated wounds, and the difficulty of maintaining a stable identity. By juxtaposing the word “Authentic”—engraved on a chaotic base—with a figure whose face seems to multiply and distort, the work captures the paradox of a quest for sincerity in which the individual sometimes ends up losing themselves.