Barnacles
Barnacles, 2024, watercolor on paper, presented in a hand made frame, 36 x 50 x 2.7 cm.
“Barnacles” is a modern iconography inspired by the artist’s view of herself as a “barnacle.” In the artwork, a young woman stands motionless on a rock amid a flowing river, lamenting her passive nature. She resists being eroded by external changes yet yearns to transform herself. Two figures aim poles toward her, representing her conflicting desires. Their intentions are ambiguous—they might be reaching out to help, or they could be trying to harm her. The girl, though in tears, spreads her fingers to see if they’re watching. She seeks help to change, but can’t let go of her past, knowing that even her most painful experiences shaped who she is. The river symbolizes the passage of time, and in this flow, she sheds her old skin, ready to become something new. For the first time, she feels fully present, gripped by a sense of immediacy.
Artist Statement: My art revolves around a collection of visual works that explore the duality of seemingly incompatible phenomena. I focus on the ambivalence stemming from two contrasting urges within me. One is the desire to erase my traumatic memories, while the other is the need to preserve or resurrect them because I cannot let go of the fact that my trauma is an integral part of my identity. In my recent work, I examine conflicting tendencies often observed in relationships. I achieve this through the use of symbiotic creatures that blend human body parts with plant elements. These personified plants serve as anonymous beings that act out hypothetical scenarios. Utilizing techniques such as drawing, painting, printmaking, and digital fabrication, I strive to create detailed representations that possess a realistic yet synthetic quality. I have a tendency to amalgamate various artistic practices from different cultures and historical periods to obscure the production era of my works. This allows viewers to separate my identity as an artist from the artwork itself, reducing the influence of my personal experiences and biases on the art. The overarching theme of my artwork is presented as a collection of narrative-based films or audio and visual experiments that symbolize the conflicting desires to preserve and purge my trauma. This collection illustrates this ambivalence by juxtaposing artworks that portray different power dynamics, futile efforts to preserve time, and the synthesis of opposing ideas.
