Vhils: Explosion at Times of Digital Turmoil

Vhils’ inaugural NFT, Hint, is now live on SuperRare

Portuguese artist Alexandre Farto (b. 1987) has been interacting visually with the urban environment under the name of Vhils since his days as a prolific graffiti writer in the early-to-mid 2000s. His groundbreaking bas-relief carving technique has been hailed as one of the most compelling approaches to art created in the streets in the last decade. 

Vhils grew up in Seixal, an industrialised suburb across the river from Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, and was deeply influenced by the transformations brought on by the intensive urban development the country underwent in the 1980s and 1990s. He was particularly inspired by the way city walls absorb the social and historical changes that take place around them. Applying his original methods of creative destruction, Vhils digs into the surface layers of our material culture like a contemporary urban archaeologist, exposing what lies beyond the superficiality of things, making visible the invisible and restoring meaning and beauty to the discarded dimensions buried beneath.

Through his first NFT work on SuperRare, Hint, Vhils explores to further emphasize his destructive approach to creation. 

Explosives

Vhils’ work with explosives should be seen as a natural progression from his original bas-relief carving technique used on walls. According to Vhils, walls retain within their layers something of the history and essence of the city which can be symbolically exposed when he carves through them. By employing explosive charges to reveal these portraits and compositions, Vhils takes this concept to its logical conclusion.

This original technique was first employed in 2010 for the Detritos (Detritus) series of art videos as a visual metaphor for the social and economic volatility brought on by the 2008 global financial crisis. As such, both this and the subsequent series speak of how, at times of turmoil, the veneer of civilization we take for granted can easily explode and bring forth previously tamed expressions of intolerance, extremism, and violence that simmer beneath the surface.

As the entire process is not only eruptive but also fast and dramatic, its result can only be truly appreciated on video. Most of these have been shot using a high-speed digital camera which enables the artist to capture the moment at a very low speed that seems to almost freeze the flying debris, creating a slow-motion poetic intensity conducive to reflection.

Extending the physical into the digital

An avid experimentalist, Vhils has been developing his personal aesthetics in a plurality of media besides his signature carving technique. Now tokenizing this video of pyrotechnic explosions on blockchain as an NFT, he brings the single act of physical destruction to an infinite virtual timeline and extends the history of city’s walls to the future of digital creation.

Across the globe

“Whether it’s blowing up a building façade in Berlin to reveal a carving of a man’s face or drilling portraits into favela walls in Rio de Janeiro, raucous street artist Alexandre Farto, who goes by the tag “Vhils,” has left an imprint on urban landscapes across the globe.” CNN (Hong Kong)

Since 2005, Vhils has presented his work in over 30 countries around the world in solo and group exhibitions, site-specific art interventions, artistic events and projects in various contexts – from working with communities in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, to collaborations with reputed art institutions such as the EDP Foundation (Lisbon), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Barbican Centre (London), CAFA Art Museum (Beijing), or the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (San Diego), among others. His unique approach and artwork have been garnering critical acclaim around the globe.