Andy Warhol portrayed Marilyn repeatedly, yet his images remain static and symmetrical, presenting her as a distant and untouchable icon of Hollywood stardom. Although she smiles and meets the viewer’s gaze, she remains curiously disengaged.

Woolfson, by contrast, collapses that distance. Moving into a tight, almost intrusive close-up, his Marilyn enters into a more immediate relationship with the viewer. Her expression is unsettled, her gaze searching, even slightly vulnerable. There is a tension in the way she looks outward, as though expecting something in return.

Rendered through a system of rigid constraints, where each cube acts as a fixed unit of colour, the image becomes an exercise in precision and emotional compression. Despite the mechanical nature of the medium, there is an unexpected intimacy here. The viewer is drawn in, not just to observe, but to respond. The energy is subtle but present, a quiet interplay between exposure and control.