2nd History of the Human Face (Socket of the Eyes), Airmail Painting No. 66 1989

Curator: Eugenio Dittborn’s large-scale “2nd History of the Human Face (Socket of the Eyes), Airmail Painting No. 66” presents a grid of faces interspersed with rudimentary red symbols. The work combines silkscreen, hand painting, and collage on paper. Editor: It’s a little haunting, isn't it? These faces, so stoic, almost like mugshots, staring out from under these… I don’t know, these childlike doodles. It makes me think of repressed stories. Curator: Dittborn's "Airmail Paintings" are particularly poignant. They are folded and mailed, often internationally, accumulating stamps, postmarks and sometimes censorship marks. This directly engages with ideas of displacement, communication, and cultural exchange. Editor: You can almost feel the journey, the weight of the mailbags, the hands that touched it. The red drawings are like defacements, maybe symbolizing the erasure of identity. Or, perhaps, a childlike attempt to connect with these anonymous faces. Curator: The faces are sourced from ethnographic photographs, positioning the work within discussions about the colonial gaze and the power dynamics inherent in representation. This is amplified by the overlay of simplistic symbols, creating a tension between objective record and subjective interpretation. Editor: It’s like a game of remembering and forgetting. Those scribbles seem to mock the very act of documenting a face, reducing history to a cartoon. Curator: Precisely, and it compels us to consider the act of looking. What do we project onto these faces? What histories do we carry with us as we observe them? Editor: Ultimately, it’s a reminder that every face has a story, even those that have been lost or distorted by time and distance.