Faces in Phone Places

Cuban-American artist Alex Queral, 51, from Philadelphia, U.S., has adopted a unique way to turn trash into treasure - by carving famous faces into telephone directories.

The sculptor was inspired by the idea when he noticed piles of phone books just lying around and began to use the material to carve a variety of recognisable faces, ranging from President Obama to Ringo Star.

The resourceful artist creates up to two new sculptures a month, with the impressions appearing in several solo as well as group exhibitions.

Writing on his profile on The Projects Gallery website, Queral said: "In carving and painting a head from a phone directory, I’m celebrating the individual lost in the anonymous list of thousands of names that describe the size of the community.

"In addition, I like the idea of creating something that is normally discarded every year into an object of longevity."

Queral starts the process of creating the phone book art by firstly sketching a face. Using this as a template, he chips and slices away at the phonebook with an artist’s scalpel or a razor blade until he reaches the final product.

Queral’s phone book faces currently can be viewed at the Philadelphia airport at Terminal F, concourse 2. Earlier this year they were part of the "Obama-rama" and "Perception: Reality" exhibitions, held at Projects Gallery in Philadelphia.

With the current trend leaning towards being ‘green’, praise goes to Queral for creating art that is environmentally friends and requires no money to produce.


Alex Queral portfolio on Projects Gallery

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