Local Faces

Live projected portraiture

Local Faces is a live performance and ongoing social research project, perfect for festivals and public engagement.

Steering away from traditional street style portraiture, artist Samuel Fraser adapts a digital approach to public video projection art. Using an iPad and an Apple Pencil, Samuel invites strangers from the community sit for a portrait drawn live.

The digital aspect allows this process to be projected live onto large or small surfaces for the audience to actively engage and participate.

Presented at:

Gertrude Street Projection Festival 2017

Paramatta Lanes Festival 2017

Collingwood Arts Precinct 2017

Locale Festival 2018

Geelong After Dark 2018

“Local Faces of Parramatta was a fantastic addition to our Parramatta Lanes event. Lee and Sam designed a great interactive artwork that captured people’s attention, involved them in the event and connected directly with the community. The setup is extremely easy and self-sufficient and both Lee and Sam are excellent to work with”

Beth Fitzpatrick, Arts Co-ordinator, City of Parramatta

Local faces. Gertrude Street Projection Festival 2017

The final drawing is then transmitted in a number of ways: they can be sent directly to another projector onsite; they can be animated and displayed as a composite of faces developed live as part of the project; they can be printed on-site and distributed to participants; they can be sent via airdrop or email to participants. As the performance develops, an intimate portrayal, through portraiture, of the community develops.

Samuel works in an engaged framework through this process, conducting conversation and reflection from participants, disabling the boundary between artist and subject, deepening his and their own experiences of the community. The live and spontaneous aspect of the performance elicits a sense of discovery for participants finding the project in action. What, from a distance, appears as a projection of faces, is revealed, upon closer inspection, as an artistic, social interaction.

WORKSHOP FORMAT led by artist Samuel Fraser. Taking from traditional portrait drawing classes and forwarding the conversation of identity and faces into the digital realm. Using ipads and drawing tablets, the workshop aims to introduce new and old artists to the digital medium. Samuel focuses on teaching the foundations of drawing and illustrating faces, referencing traditional master artists like Andrew Loomis. A further aspect to the workshop will be opening the conversation about identity, a topic importantly fitting the practice of portraiture.

Workshop Case Study - Mt.Erin College

"On Wednesday the 18th of October, Samuel came to our school to talk to us about how he turned his passion (Art) into a career and the steps that lead him to it. His talk inspired those who didn’t know what they want to do once they leave school and that they can turn their passion into a career. As he was talking to us about his journey, he was drawing a portrait of one of our teachers on a live app so that we can see the steps and techniques he used whilst drawing. In other words, the talk was informative and inspirational, and we would recommend Sam coming into other schools. We all would like to thank Sam for coming into our school and inspiring us to achieve our personal best"

Students of Mt.Erin College

‘Awesome and inspiring’– Molly. J

‘Interactive and informative’- Hayley. W

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