During Vhils' first visit to Moscow in 2009, he cut a portrait of Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) into the plaster of a building at 25 Savvinskaya Embankment, exposing successive layers of render and brick — the writer identifiable by his round wire-rimmed glasses. The piece belongs to the formative period of Scratching the Surface, made before the wider recognition that would later meet Vhils' large-scale public interventions, and marks an early stage in the geographical spread of a method built to work with existing architecture. Photographs via Lazarides Gallery / Arrested Motion.
Year2009PlaceMoscow, RussiaMediumWallsSeriesScratching the Surface