Entertainment

These Grotesque Video Portraits Are The Stuff Of Nightmares

Italian video artist Donato Sansone (aka MilkyEyes) has got one twisted imagination. His work continuously takes a virtual hacksaw to the human body — dismembering limbs, distorting faces, and contorting flesh in the most cringe-inducing ways. The result is one of those beautiful car crash scenarios where you can’t look away even though it kind of makes your stomach do somersaults. 

Our friends at Creative Applications turned us on to a new video portrait series Sansone’s been developing in recent months. Images of real people are extruded into 3-dimensional, painterly, surreal configurations that are reminiscent of Francis Bacon‘s work, as well as contemporary artists like Cyriak who share a similar penchant for the grotesquely absurd. 

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Sansone’s goal for the project is to produce about 50 of these moving portraits, each lasting about 4-5 seconds. Using a combination of Photoshop and After Effects composited onto real images, he’s able to create these face-melting moving paintings. A collaboration with sound designer Enrico Ascoli will help set the stark, dream-like mood for the short film.