If houses hold stories, walls are one of the essential gatekeepers of those stories. When remodeling an old house, it’s the layers of walls, floors, and ceilings you can tear away that reveal the past lives of the house.

Peeling away layers to unearth a story is true not only literally, for buildings, but metaphorically for people as well, which is what makes Portuguese artist Alexandre Farto’s medium and technique– removing layers of wall– just so darn perfect for his subject matter– portraits.

In an interview, Farto, who goes by the pseudonym Vhils, says this about the meaning of layers in his work:

“I believe that, as social animals, we are all composed and shaped by a variety of different influences which are layered onto us. We are formed by these social and historical layers which are provided by the environment and context we grow up and live in … I believe that by removing some of these layers and leaving other, deeper and therefore older, layers, we can expose some of the things which have been forgotten or discarded along the way. Some of these might be truly important or valuable, or even just interesting or whatever. These lost memories compose who we are today.”

As for method, Vhils uses many tools to chip and chisel the walls, but he also uses explosives.

This hi-def, slow-motion capture of his use of explosives is pretty stunning. Honestly, this video is cool enough that I probably would have made a post about it even if I knew nothing about Vhils!

You can see more of Vhils work, which includes wood, metal, and billboard work in addition to walls, here.

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