Moniker Artist Spotlight: Vermibus

Solo show at Moniker Art Fair 2018 in Shoreditch, London

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From the smoothing of facial skin, over the reduction of eye bags and wrinkles erasure, to enlargement of eyes and lips, “photoshopping” the human body to “perfection” has become the norm in advertising.

Through the presentation of this idealized view of the human body, advertisers seek to persuade customers to buy their products, essentially promising a better life. Beauty has become synonym of success and happiness, and even if the average person realize that this premise is genuinely false it keeps on being socially accepted and followed by the vast majority.
The Berlin-based artist and activist Vermibus has developed a unique practice centered around the critique of contemporary
beauty standards.

He comments on the attempts of advertisement and consumer society in general that aim to take away individual identities only to replace them by the one of a certain brand.
This artist bases his practice on targeting the depersonalizing effects of advertising, which he negates by exaggerating them.
He removes official poster ads from the public space and alters them in his studio by applying chemical solvents to the image.
He dissolves the face and flesh of the models appearing in the campaigns, smudges and erases brand logos, and then returns the resignified ads into their original context.
Through this resignification, Vermibus humanizes the figures that were previously depersonalized, as a means of launching a sharp social critique of the advertising industry and their practices on the human body.