context
My work explores the boundary between the individual and the collective. At what point does a person transform into a "type"? Do they lose their unique traits to represent a group? Is it possible for an "other" to maintain their individuality while still being part of a collective? These themes of dissolution and emergence are at the core of my multidisciplinary approach.
In my software-based installations, I program unique nondeterministic
algorithms to simulate physical interactions between silhouettes that move in a gravity-free
environment. Human bodies appear to float on surfaces of fabric or paper, contained within a
canvas-like object on the wall. While they fly, fall, and collide, they personify unscripted
emotions through an unpredictable chain of actions and reactions. I think of them as emotive ecosystems.
In my
figurative acrylic paintings, I employ the anatomical body as a living historical idiom, a
carrier of the weight of a collective past. Using a sgrafitto technique, I remove layers of
paint to draw out a shoulder or a gaze, line by line. My aim is to reflect the psychological and
physiological impact of historical events and the imprints they leave on our individual and
shared identities. I edit the heavy texture of the underpainting so that it often remains
visible as it traverses the surfacing body. I erase extraneous historical references, including
that of the traditional canvas itself, by placing the figure in a background of heavy, shapeless
white paint.
In my
charcoal-based paintings, the question of a unit of identity is posed in the other direction. I
probe the point at which simple marks, lines and smudges coalesce to form the perception of a
body. These works came out of the worlds of William Kentridge, Alberto Giacometti, and Kaethe
Kollwitz. This series is an exploration of the limits of our visual vocabulary and the potency
of suggestion in art, through charcoal and white paint. I am captivated by the balance between
the familiar and the alien, and the remarkable range of expressions that can emerge from their
interplay.
I work with artist
communities in Europe and the US. These collaborations provide both unfamiliar perspectives and
common causes. As an artist and a techie, an immigrant and an expat, I aim to reveal the nuances
that lie beneath the surface of our quantified lives.