Experiences of (Dis)Connection

 

Intuitive processes direct my art practice. I was born and raised in Germany; however, I do not come from a common Western religious background. I am the daughter of an Indian Hindu father and a German Protestant mother and grew up in a small, homogeneous, Catholic village in Germany. Mainly raised Protestant, I additionally experienced diverse religious insights and influences from my Hindu father and the strict Catholic community that I grew up in. Having diverse religious and cultural influences made me prematurely question my cultural and religious background and realize early on that there are diverse ways to believe and various perspectives on knowledge. My work explores aspects of “reality”, such as perception, subjectivity, identity, and connectivity. I create my artwork through a variety of media such as video, photography, performance art, sculpture, installation and digital imaging. The mediated image intrigues me. I view it as a form of memory that is an altered and subjective version of reality or as a modified reflection of the world. What each of us observes, we filter through our own particular psyche, knowledge, and experience, which in turn skews our view of the “real”, rendering the experience in a mind-constructed form. It is when we are not exactly sure what to think that our minds engage on a journey. These are moments of imagination – portals for a potential change of mind. I hope for my work to provide such moments. My artwork has been exhibited throughout Europe, the United States, and in Asia at venues such as the Museum of Communication, Berlin, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the OpenArt10th International Performance Festival, Beijing among others.