I have two themes running through my exhibition, initially looking at water and then I aimed to convey the idea of an individual hiding their true personality. At the beginning of this journey, I was inspired by the water I observed in Paris and the Seine. Later, I decided to focus on our generation’s life, one’s confused identity, an issue that has dramatically impacted individuals due to problems in society. I have used a variety of techniques in my artwork, such as sculpting, painting, photography, and drawing, mostly in my 2D pieces and some 3D. The aim of my artworks was to metaphorically represent common problems so that any individual can relate to them.
For my pieces about water such as A peaceful day, Water reflection and Water refraction, I have used photographs as the basis of my work, taken by myself about the water in Paris. For my other theme of figures and identity, mostly noticeable in the pieces Hidden, Unseen, Fragmented face, Multiple face, Disturbed society, and Identity, I mainly focused on body features and disturbance. I decided to use a variety of processes such as using hands as tools when sculpting Concealed, whereas in other scenarios I molded the faces. This concerns painting too, I painted Hidden, with a palette knife and dry paint, and another piece like Disturbed society was done with a brush and wet paint. Painting and clay can be extremely useful to do abstract and disturbing pieces thus helping the viewers to perceive a certain strange imagery. Although my work has a personal meaning, a variety of artists have inspired my work. The main ones were Frida Kahlo and James Ensor that inspired me with this idea of masks, Francis Bacon with distortion, and Cindy Sherman with disturbing staged photography. They all worked with this idea of distorting human features and representing different personalities. I want my audience to understand and realize how one can hide behind a mask.
