Statement

I am an artist whose current work consists of a series of paintings on wood panels which focus on disregarded places in urban environments.

Inspired by my experience of living by myself for almost 7 years in a foreign country, I became intrigued by the concept of “non-places,” places where people remain anonymous, not belonging, and therefore estranged. These places are common and necessary to function in society: side streets, alley ways, public bathrooms, subway stations, parking lots, grocery stores, etc. However, as I pass through them routinely every day, it becomes clearer to me that these spaces are built for maximal function and minimal aesthetics. They are used for efficient transportation, efficient consumption, and even efficient excretion. Carefully observing and analyzing these spaces gives me the feeling as if I am trapped in a maze, both in time and space — everywhere looks identical and indifferent, as if there may be no escape. The spaces I encounter often feel devoid of personality, defined by their sheer mundaneness.

In order to recreate this sense of bleakness that I feel navigating through non-places, I depict artificial subjects in my painting, including landscapes, interiors, still lifes, and lifeless figures based on accurate observations. It is my intention to share a cold gleam of mundanity that emphasizes industrial, inorganic, and ultimately inhuman nature. I explore my relationship with these spaces through the tools of composition, light, and texture, fragmenting the pictorial space with composite wood panels as well as the geometric division of colors. In addition, playing with extreme cropping hints my location in space relative to the subject. By doing so, it implies a sense of time, but also excludes a lot of information and leaves questions and curiosities about my subjects. Through fragmentation and incompleteness of non-spaces I depict, I want to block full psychological access to my paintings, raise confusion and capture the maze-like quality that I see.