Artist Statement
I'm compelled by the richness of the world I live in - its histories, its cultures, and its multiplicity of being: wondrous, terrible, beautiful, messy, complex and simple. My drawing and writing are the medium and the message of this constant, internal drive: everything I live for and create are embodied, infused expressions of wonder and love for humanity. The motivation remains the same regardless of audience and subject matter.
I approach my creative practice with a scholarly, interpretive, transformative lens. I pick apart something given to me and build it back up in ways that recontextualise how it is seen, accompanied by notes. I am very interested in approaches rooted in decolonial thought, mostly in my pursuit for things taken for granted - to elevate it, tear it asunder, bring it down to its barest essentials, paint it new, and in the end, show it the attention and respect it deserves.
Where I belong is in the quest for the humanity of the nameless and lost. The things that silently survived. The things that are buried under what feels more important. I’m not sure if when I bring these things up and put them in my words and art, that they will be named, but at least they will be seen by my readers. And at the very least, loved and remembered by me, in this short moment in time, no matter how far distant chronologically and culturally the objects are.
Who knows? Perhaps because of my work, what I find and what I write will survive together in a future, wherever we go. Maybe I will somehow keep my name, or maybe I will be nameless too. What matters is that the humanity is remembered. The humanity that I am inspired by, and the humanity to which I will return to. Remembered for the future. A silent contribution to survival.
As long as I live, I will take the journey less familiar to see this world.
I will be an advocate for it, as I have always been.
The unknown is where my voice is, and while that voice may not be loud, it’s where my purpose speaks the loudest.
In my words and pictures.
A keeper of heritage, past, present and future.
Politically Around, an essay I wrote describing my political role as an artist
