Successful communication needs both verbal and physical expression and must be joined together through the act of understanding. Non-verbal communication is defined by gesture and body language and makes up a large part of how we interpret and misinterpret each other. This includes clues to how we lie to each other. A lie is to make a false statement with a deliberate intent to deceive and history suggests humanity learnt this art of deception not long after spoken language first emerged.

If we fast forward to current day, we live in a post truth society where alternative facts and falsehoods are a regular occurrence. We’re presented with continual examples of political distrust and fake news, all confirming our need to adapt our visual literacy to recognising these mistruths when they’re presented to us.

The Path of an Honest Man explores this concept by looking at visual deception through gesture and body language and considering the differences between spoken and expressed languages. The work looks to the archetype of the 1950s salesman for inspiration. By understanding a time where methods of persuasion were taught and mastered, the work questions whether lying and deception is a visual code, one that could be understood and ultimately mastered.