There was not a specific date on which my theme solidified. Upon reflection, the personal experiences that I was facing throughout the two years of the diploma program translated subconsciously into my artworks. When I reflected on each piece that I made after it was completed, a pattern emerged. Each photograph, whether intended or not, seemed to reflect a personal experience in an abstract way. The deeper I looked at the artworks, I saw an underlying theme of emotions and events that can represent human experience. Through the concepts of The Human Experience I hope to show how complex individual emotions and experiences are. As my artworks are drawn from human emotions and experience it was important for me to use people as my motifs in all of my artworks in order to draw a connection between my art and the theme.  

 

I understand that the way in which we perceive, and experience emotion is different for each individual. That is why in my exhibition a few of my works have specific meanings behind them, however, a few of my pieces are there for the viewers to connect with and draw their own conclusions on the work based on their firsthand experiences. 

 

The works in this exhibition are primarily made through the medium of photography and Videography. Three types of cameras were used: A Diana F+ camera with 120mm B+W film, a Nikon DSLR and a standard iPhone camera was used. I experimented with these three types of cameras in order to see how each type brought my theme to life in connection with how they see the world. I chose these mediums as I believe that photography can show the world in its raw form and I wanted to bring that idea into my work.

 

Curating my artworks for the exhibition helped me see how they connect with each other, their similarities and their differences. To encourage engagement between the audience and my works I displayed them by separating the calmer photos with the more chaotic works. This categorization allows for the public to see the difference between calmer, more graceful takes on human experiences and emotion and the more chaotic, colourful side of the human experience.

 

The artworks are presented from the outside in a minimalistic calm fashion, but when you go inside the structure you can see that it slightly more condensed and less calm in presentation. This is done in order to symbolize the human mind. From the outside, every human experience and emotion seems so simple, however when looking from the inside, both are messy and complex and crowded. The way that I decided to present my work aims to bring that idea to life, through this exhibition the audience is meant to feel as if they are stepping into someone’s mind.