Selfie
Postpainting
Circa 2025
Selfie is a requiem for shame — a portrait of power standing atop the ashes, phone raised, smile calibrated, history burning in the background.
A wasteland of bombed-out buildings stretches into the blood-orange dusk, every scorched window a silent scream. Yet no one turns to look. Dozens of identical bald men, suited and expressionless, face away from the devastation. Their backs form a corporate phalanx, a bureaucratic firewall between atrocity and accountability. Each one lifts a smartphone, capturing not the horror before them, but their own image within it.
Front and centre, the lead figure — face instantly recognisable, expression part smugness, part denial — locks eyes with the viewer mid-selfie, mid-siege. The implication is chilling: this is not a moment of reflection. This is branding. A war turned into a backdrop. A city’s annihilation reduced to the aesthetic of a strongman’s feed.
What we witness here is not concealment, but choreography. Destruction is no longer hidden — it’s staged. Documented, filtered, and uploaded for engagement. The spectacle is not a byproduct; it’s the product.
The crowd does not mourn the dead. They do not hear the silence. They document themselves surviving — thriving — against the backdrop of obliteration. Each screen is a mirror, and in that mirror, nothing changes. The skyline crumbles. The phones light up. The selfies continue.
