Alexithymia

Coloured pencil and ink pen on paper

60 × 40 cm / 23.6 × 15.7 in, 2019

Available — €900

The face appears almost expressionless, crossed by rips that remove essential parts of the image.

Alexithymia is linked to difficulty identifying and describing one’s own emotions. It can make emotions harder to recognize, name and communicate, both in oneself and in others.

That is why I wanted to create a still, anhedonic face, where the lack of expression also makes the face hard to read.

The missing fragments do not only suggest something absent in the subject. They also make it harder for the viewer to find emotional signals to hold on to, allowing them to experience, in front of the image, a similar difficulty in accessing emotion.