Overthinking, thoughts and reflections on my latest exhibition
As I sit here on the couch, now placed under the large windows—a much better spot—I take in the space around me. The sound of piano music from my speaker in the background helps. I enjoy the space. It feels serene and calm, and it also inspires me to create new things. The once overcrowded hallway has been significantly cleared, and a few images now hang on the wall. Fragments of Nijinsky rest on an old cabinet with drawers. Inside the drawers is green felt, which reminds me of my mother. When she was young, she used to line the insides of drawers with felt. I can picture it so vividly—her carefully lining them, and me later placing my images inside. I've always loved drawers with felt.
Seeing the hallway and the space filled with my own work gives me both a reassuring and an uncertain feeling. Reassuring because I am quite satisfied with what I see, and uncertain about whether I have enough to move forward.
Someone walked in and said, “This is something completely different from what you usually did?” But is it? I've often thought about that. The intrinsic motivation to create comes from a need to translate my emotions into something visible. I don’t think that has ever changed. I remember that as a child, I was always looking for ways to do this—through writing poems and stories, but also through drawing and painting. Later, dance became another way for me to express what was happening inside me. And now, through sculpting, I have once again found my way. So perhaps the need to express myself is greater than my love for any specific medium.
When I decided to use my own studio as an exhibition space, it took me quite some time to figure out how to use the space and make it part of the work I wanted to show. In that sense, the environment plays an important role in my creative process. And by that, I mean the process of constructing and conceptualizing a presentation. The beauty of a physical space is that it is constantly changing, which allows you to look at your work differently each time and use it in new ways.
I truly enjoy this process—how things grow, how the work, my ideas, and the form are developing organically.