I used to think that the concept must come before the artwork. That’s how The perfect home and Community lights came to be: idea first, execution later.
In truth, the idea came while doing experiments. So, yeah, I did a documentation, but the actual idea came and refined itself while I experimenting. (’cause, you know, Ideas are entities with free will that come and go as they please)
So, what happens when an experiment is IT? The final object. You try something and you go like: this is the shit!
What happens if someone else says that?
What if all you want to do is create an object by certain specifications, say to be 10x10x10, but then they ask you to write a statement?
Fortunately, I had to write it in Romanian, my native language and once again, I realized how easy I find words that go well together. The statement was pretty and said nothing, but sounded like poetry.
Două sfori. În funcție de felul în care sunt împletite dau naștere la două obiecte complet diferite. Deși identice la început, ajung sa fie de nerecunoscut. Doar în întuneric se regăsesc asemenea. Aici înfloresc cu adevarat. Lumina le arată adevărul, iar diferențele nu fac decât să le apropie de originile lor, aceleași…
I translated it to English and all the poetry was gone, but something emarged: the essence.
Two ropes. Depending on how they are netted, they end up as different objects. Although identical in the beginning, they are unrecognizable in the end. Only in the night they find themselves alike. In the darkness is where they truly bloom. The light shows the truth and their differences get them closer to their core which is the same… rope.
See, at first I thought it was all bullshit about how the object is made of rope and in the end that’s what it is: a rope.
The statement is actually about two objects, each made of rope. And the whole idea is that even if they superficially look different, the objects are in the end both the same rope.
Now, this whole equality in diversity is not something that hasn’t been on my mind lately. Whether you want to or not you have to think about racism and homofobia and “differentofobia”, in general. You may not talk about it, but you think about it. When you’re a woman, equality is like the elephant in the room. It is also a very tricky issue.
So, I found myself surprised that I developed a project regarding equality in diversity out of nothing, that is without consciously thinking about it. The idea literally came to me. It came from this constant badgering from social media and the people around me about what I’m suppose to care about, act on or take a stand for.
Now, diversity is the most important thing for me. I need to see, hear and read different things. Learning to accept what is different is a process. We were not raised to do so. Teaching ourselves is hard, but worth it.
For we are all made of the same matter.
For we all exchange the same energy with one another. (and it better be the fucking positive kind)
These two objects, gave rise to an idea for an entire installation of which I will talk later.
Yet, the most important thing that happened is that when I had to write about nothing (or a bullshit statement, as I call it), I wrote about the most important thing to me.
The joy of creating 