ARTIST STATEMENT
Mooren is an exploration into the symbiosis of my personal identity and culture, which is a pertinent reflection of contemporary Australian society. Through exploring my personal reconciliation with both being Aboriginal and European Australian, the work aims to dissect the divide between the two and anticipate how Australian society may strive to create a symbiosis between the two cultures. By acknowledging the pieces of my culture that seem to be ignored and dismissed, I encourage the initiation of a demonstrated interdependence between the two cultures.
ARTWORK PROCESS
Layering mixed media such as coffee, black ink, brown watercolour and shredded ephemera that was ripped from a thesaurus, I created a base for this multi aspect self-portrait. The words from the thesaurus were carefully selected to reflect issues pertinent to my identity and the commonality of the human condition. Using black and white charcoal, I drew the self-portrait from several primary source reference photographs that I ripping up and rearranged into the composition.
