I am an interdisciplinary artist with a focus in painting. In my artwork, I explore the place, and how it relates to home and my identity. I am investigating what home means to me, where I have a sense of belonging, and what this space looks like. My understanding of home is affected by my relationships with people, and my experiences in a place. I have lived in India, the United States, Ireland, and Israel and in each of these places, I found a sense of belonging. When I moved to a new place, I had to leave behind my relationships with the people and the place.
The loss and disorientation that I felt, is expressed in my work. Creating art about this transition between places helps me to remain in the present moment. My workplaces specifically. I explore the definitions of the painting by using mixed media. My sculptures, installations, books, prints, performances, and ceramics involve various forms of painting. The material choice comes after the concept. Every material that I use has a meaning and is representative of personal symbols.
In Israel, people are not freely able to visit specific places in the country for religious and political reasons. However, as a tourist, you can visit any part of the country. I visited the city Ramallah, within the Palestinian territory, as a tourist. On my way back, I got caught in the middle of a tear gas attack. I experienced a duality, I was welcome on the land as a visitor, but at the same time, I could not escape the conflicting situation. Knowing that I was walking into an unstable situation, I could not blame anyone for getting caught in the tear gas, as I was responsible for my own actions. My work, Do Not Enter, was created to embody this experience. The artwork was installed on the five main entrance doors of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
Each sign was a Rangoli made out of colored sand. From a distance, the images I created looked like an authentic Do Not Enter sign, however on close inspection it was evident that these were not legit. The signs were not meant to deter students, but rather to make a viewer second guess their actions. When installed, one sign was ripped off the door, and someone had written, “Thanks for wasting our time, jerk. Half the class was late because of you.” The need to write this message to the artist, which could be considered unethical and could result in certain consequences, as well as the fact that the work affected student’s routines, raised questions about the privilege and authority of an artist and a viewer.
Fractured is a series of painting convey my detached relationships with people and places from my hometown. The paintings are landscapes painted from the projected photographs on the surface. The photos as a digital medium represent the way I connect with my hometown; video calls, looking satellite images on the internet, Instagram, and Facebook. The photos are taken by my parents. The process of receiving photos is a performance for me which provides a reason to start connecting with each other. In the future, I aim to receive photos of my hometown from people who are meaningful to me but I have lost connection with them. The projected photo on the paper creates a space between the projector and the surface.
This space allows me to be in the photo with my loved once. This space gives me a sense of disorientation. I paint the landscape with intuitions and from the emotions the evokes during that experience. The series addresses the distance between me and my hometown and broken relationships which is created by unfished structures wiped out parts and black negative space.
Boundaries of Touch is a series of drawings I made in 2016, which I revisited in 2018 and 2020 in different media. The most recent iteration is a series of artist books. The work is about exploring my boundaries, my defenses, the walls I build to hold myself. The black, white, and red, bold lines and shapes, are symbolic representations of people. Revisiting a concept through different forms results in a deeper understanding of the subject matter to me.
Having an emotional connection with the subject matter of the artwork is the most important part of my process. I investigate my relationships with people and places through my artworks. My artworks allow me to reconnect and apprehend the experiences, places, and people that are meaningful to me.