synthesis My body of work has acted as self-reflection on internal and external factors that have influenced who I am today. As I’ve grown up, I’ve felt that there has been an emerging emphasis on the importance of self-care.
Throughout my creative process, I wanted to explore a personal struggle with self-acceptance due to social expectations and the generally high standards I set for myself. This inspired my use of sculptural and digital mediums that seemed either minimal or industrial. I felt it was important to experiment with new techniques such as VR, and vector design as these more technical processes are analogous to my portrayal of development. I emphasized the importance of mediums by reducing my overall colour palette to tones of grey, attempting to create objective representations of emotional issues. I converted the space into a white cube gallery, eliminating distractions to encourage contemplation of the works. Not only is this stylistically continuous with my pieces, but also the expansive nature of the room allows viewers to see larger pieces at a distance. Since doubt and failure are inherently universal experiences, the public nature of the gallery acts encourages reflection about one’s development. When considering arrangement, I often put works in close proximity to each other to pair representations of an issue and their effect on me. For instance, I made two sculptural works to tangibly present the process and failure in rationalizing emotional adversity. I created these works to be more vulnerable as I often find myself trying to maintain a professional and strong image. By representing failure and development as a multifaceted idea, I hope that walking through the gallery allows each idea to build on each other for a more engaged reflection.
NATHAN
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