KENJI URATA

Okinawa-based artist Kenji Urata has created a series of eerie illustrated portraits that appear distorted by glitches. Taking a highly photo-realistic approach, Urata used software like Photoshop and Painter to create his ideal “idols,” which are composite images based on photos of friends, as well as pictures from magazines. Eyes were enlarged and proportions were adjusted – deliberately, of course – to create a blurring boundary between fake and real. The result is a series of unidentified girls who exist only behind the screen.

“The impetus for the project actually came from the unnatural functions of purikura, in which girls enlarge their eyes for photographs,” Urata told us. “Also, the Chinese girl KOKO who’s all over the internet right now.”

Urata’s previous work involved a similar distortion of identities, but by photographing real people. IDOLS represents a continuation of that theme but with a foray into the digital world.