Urban Stages

Urban Stages is a series of hand-cut paper portraits set in city scenes that look like movie backdrops rather than real places. I use architecture the way a stage director uses scenery. Water towers, rooftops, facades, and apartment buildings frame the action, control the mood, and suggest pressure, class, and belonging without spelling it out.

 

The human figures in each portrait are the lead actors. They stand still and direct, facing us, as if caught between posing and revealing. The set-like city behind them shows what the world asks of us—how we present ourselves, how we’re watched, and how we try to stay human inside big public spaces. Each collage is a small scene where identity feels both chosen and performed, and where the backdrop quietly tells part of the story.

 

At its core, the series examines what it means to claim presence in spaces that constantly frame, define, and watch us.