// ffpα // Fashionable facepiece
In 2020…
…the Corona pandemic started to get a hold of us.
In my homeland austria wearing a filtering facepiece was one of the first measures to be set by our great leaders.
I think we all know by now what losing a part of your facial features does to human interaction. By now it has become weirdly normal to know some ppl only by the upper half of their faces, but back at the start of 2020 it felt like a mutilation. A lot of human expression got lost. Even ones personality, as the mouth is – to my understanding – a visible manifestation of a persons character and the emotions it has displayed for the foregone life, is cut down and hindered from growing nearer.
And since life seems to hand you lemons all the time, i turned this curse into a possibility!
Where the human form got reduced, a place for art was created. The face is a museum, its a cinema. It displays your story, your inner life. The mouth literally opens a hole into your body to interact and exchange with the outer world. Take air in, give your expressions back out (as well as the sweet smell of strawberries and overly expensive whine).
Not a mechanical one, but an artistic filter. No standard, just art, no Number just the sign “α”.
Now the filter does what it should, redirecting the airflow, limiting the exchange of microscopic organic structures. While it is a necessary crutch, it is also a prison for your smile. A sad punishment for your cute smirk. With great effort your face tries to paint a beautiful picture for the ones in front of you. And now it is held back like the invisible danger in your voice. The irony is clearly visible though, one giant, gourgeous and smart lifeform fighting against an invisible menace. And to contain this hidden plague we must tuck away a part of our life, conceal a portion of togetherness so we can stay in affinity and while staring at those very features we are missing.
So this series of Illustrations, printed on reusable facepieces, is a poor substitute and a sad excuse for the missing exceptionalism of your wryly grin. Oh, how i miss the peculiar alignment of your stained teeth, your soft and special lips, the way they warp and wrinkle when you smile!
*whispering*
Why havent we ever kissed when we could have?
