Retribution

My practise combines the form of narrative techniques and documentary with a spacial experience into imaginary journeys. In my film and sculpture work I am particularly interested in questions and issues of identity in everyday life. I consider my installations as pre-designed reception spaces in which I explore what it means to be a character and what it means to have a story.

In all of my work, whether digital or physical, I am largely committed to film because it automatically and immediately brings up the issue of representation by its very nature. Tools of documentary allow me to challenge and reimagine fundamentalist thinking beyond the obvious and superficial, closly engaging with the subject in my practise, while I adapt fictional, cinematic parameters to shift the perspectives through which we experience social realism.

As an artist, I am committed to experimental methods of interaction and engagement with art beyond its traditional reception. I explore how to stage a film so it invites people to immerse themselves in a very direct way.

While critical or interventional art and film might set out to benefit those in the margins of society – where it has symbolic value – it nonetheless generates hard cash in the places where it is received. So, while it may mean representation for the marginalized, it is undoubtedly also a site for accumulation of capital for those with more privilege – essentially replicating the socio-economic divisions of a globalized industry. Symbolism for the poor and capital for the not so poor.

Having the best of intentions, the artist might ask themselves why nothing has changed as a result of the work they create especially because, for the artist or creator, so much changes in (and after) the process of making your work. Arguably, even those who view the work experience some sort of change and this too may be converted into economic value. Yet, those represented by the work experience very little change at all.

So, even the work of criticizing inequality creates more inequality, and I recognize this is a natural consequence of my work. As a result, I cannot take the accumulation of capital for granted but rather should take ownership of the ramifications of my work and turn capital into a tool, using it the same way you might use a camera or a brush. Furthermore, this is a tool I must manage carefully. Otherwise, it is co-opted under the interests of others.

Sometimes, what the work purports to represent is different from what it is truly at play. There is a failure to disclose processes, materiality and the wider considerations of the work that enables it to pretend something poetic in place of something damaging.

It is a Fata Morgana.