Scratching the Surface

Scratching the Surface is Vhils' longest-running project: the worldwide series of carved walls that began in November 2007, with a first wall cut for the Visual Street Performance exhibition at Fábrica do Braço de Prata, Lisbon. The method stays the same — excavating a portrait out of the wall's own layers — while the city and the person portrayed change. Every carved wall in the catalogue belongs to the series, which opens with the wall where it began.