Sandim Mendes
21 February 2017 09:00 - 26 February 2017 17:00
In her ongoing research on cultural identity artist Sandim Mendes explores in MASQ e CABEZAS 11 the realm of the subconscious mind and its role in the construction of identity. The result is a series of photographs, textiles and drawings.
MASQ investigates African masking culture. Sandim was particularly interested in how certain African traditions have been practicing specific spiritual acts in order to contact the ancestors. She is interested in the concept of subconsciously bringing history into the present. In this work she developed hand-made costumes and masks inspired by such rituals, yet deriving from the present. In mimicking these she questions how such activities could still manifest in one's own subconscious today.
CABEZAS11 are automatic drawings with no preconceived subject or composition in mind. When transferred to another medium a two-fold process of unconscious and conscious activity occurs. A series of linocuts, presenting a variety of Cabezas (heads) is the end result of this process.
Sandim Mendes
Sandim Mendes is a visual artist born and raised in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. She received her BFA from Willem de Kooning Academy in 2010. In her work Mendes explores photography through a mixed media practice whereby she investigates identity in and between various cultures. Her work engages with the immediate social environment. Since her graduation in 2010 Mendes' work has been selected for several projects and exhibitions. In 2010 she was nominated for the Van Bommel Van Dam Prize, presented to young promising artists from the Netherlands and Germany. As a member of the State of L3 collective, she participated in the exhibition Parallel Doors of Perception (2010) at MUHKA Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp. Several of her works have been featured as visual essays for the publication of a multi-platform project called Unfixed (2012).
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