Hamlet 

John Austen created this set of illustrations for Shakespeare’s Hamlet, an early 20th-century revisiting of a timeless text. Austen’s work invites reflection on identity, specifically how roles and expectations shape who we are. The series presents the viewer with the key faces and motifs of Shakespeare's play; the images create an echo chamber of masks, skulls, and androgynous figures, blurring the lines between the real and the performed. Austen's images capture Hamlet’s themes of deception and the search for truth. You can feel this tension in the contrast between the art deco style of the series and the dark subject matter. Austen’s illustrations for Hamlet encourage us to consider the complexity of human existence, and the masks we wear, both on and off the stage.