ARTIST STATEMENT
‘Presence’ is an ongoing experimental series of landscapes speculating upon the concept of light; encouraging healing and integration of human experience by poeticizing nature with almost otherworldly and surreal visions. Orbs of light bursting with color are gateways to facilitate initiation of a renewed sense of time, place and self. Memory and experience of place can be transformed by our observation of light as symbolic portals leading to renewal within internal psychological landscapes. I have incorporated digital and mixed media to create these evocative atmospheres.
My practice evolves through various media including painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, print media, installation, digital media, artists’ books, music and poetry. In my work, I speculate upon reconceptualizing memory traces emerging from familial, personal, collective trauma and loss. This explorative process leads me to a restorative and even a celebratory notion of self-construction, desire, longing and a sense of homecoming.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Elif Sezen is an Australian/Turkish multidisciplinary artist, researcher, bilingual writer and poet. Elif holds a PhD in Fine Art from Monash University and her work has been exhibited widely nationally and internationally. She is the author of ‘Universal Mother’ (Gloria SMH Press) and ‘A Little Book of Unspoken History’ (Puncher & Wattmann). She was also part of the Dangerous Women Project (The University of Edinburgh) with her essay, artworks and poetry and her contribution was published in ‘The Art of Being Dangerous: Exploring Women and Danger through Creative Expression’, edited by Jo Shaw and Ben Fletcher-Watson (Leuven University Press, 2021).
© Elif Sezen