2013-2014

Being in my final year of the BVA degree at Auckland University of technology I have new objectives in being able to operate as a critically aware artist. Making artwork and analytically reflecting conceptually and technically on the process and outcome of the artworks will become the developmental process of the foundation of insights, knowledge, and skills acquired to become a self directed artist. By extending, connecting and deepening into my on going practise as an artist I will become more so profoundly sensitive to visual language and critical perspectives.

With my previous trajectory of identity being a common manifest of this years direction and on-going art practise I wish to devolve in depth this idea.
In my final exhibition in 2013, my key areas of concern were identity as a state of becoming rather than a state of being. This was illustrated within the exploitative conditioning of repetitive means to illustrate change in ones identity. The contextual statement as follows illustrated an analytical understanding to the exhibiting works.

Within the 1950’s, identity immersed as a popular social science term, which was notably assigned to particular cultural, racial or sexual differences, but to the self-existential category.  Thus rather than critically suggesting a stable sense of selfhood, alternatively the term also was used to appropriate a problematic ‘identity crisis’ or a ‘search for identity,’ deriving from the individual’s alienation in the preface of a more profoundly anonymous society.  Its appears a search for identity along with an increasing self-reflexivity became more apparent in modern society, with the self being a common manifest within a contemporary art context.  Contentiously assuming that identity is a fixed, transparent concept, and somehow solidified within the mind, if not in reality, is far fixated from the truth condemning this assumption. Rather identity is futile, a construction of different layers and elements that are articulated through discourses and narratives.

Exploring identity through art underpins a tangible source of expression. Through exploring the human body we become engrossed within ones identity whether being notorious or concealed, we become oblivious to the problematic and contingent formality of identity.  Identity is always in a state of becoming rather than a state of being, with a multitude of elements always changing in time. A search for identity through repetitive means illustrates the change in ones identity through time. We become aware that this ‘search fort identity’ is an attempt to represent ones identity, which will not fully deem accurate at any given moment.