I am intrigued by the capture, preservation, and examination of moments between moments. The in-between moments where soul is found.
My practice is grounded in alchemical and imaginal processes that explore energy in transition from one expression to another – from one state to another. I seek to bring to the physical eye, the transitions that occur with such rapidity that they most often remain unacknowledged. It is my belief that it is these veiled experiences are often our most profound.
I have grappled with the notion of paradox which has compelled me to explore the tension between opposites, most expressly, those that exist between masculine and feminine principles. In turn, this tension pushes my creative practice into the in-between, where a third, new state of being can be discovered and expressed.
"Using nothing but the human body as a tool, the light and dark as their array, the images speak of our inherent dualities through the vulnerability of skin and the strength of bone, the movement of hair and muscle, the unfolding and constriction of repose.”
This series of photographs relies solely on the elemental, unadorned, naked human form. Viewed as a captured transition, the images elicit a sense of self in union, moving into or out of a collaboration of human mass and human shadow. They reveal the tangible, dense physical form touching its ethereal double.
When interpreted as moving into one another, these halves express a marriage of self and silhouette, an evolution of the merely physical creature as it recognizes and embraces it's other. Seen instead as a splitting apart, a mitosis is disclosed as these realized halves step out of union to view one another - or turn away from one another completely, abandoning themselves to the graces of selfish autonomy and pressing viewers to make a choice within this tension of opposites. They lay bare for us a birth stretching into new form, and unveil a haunting of the self by the self.
When these same images are viewed as fixed - the physical self in balance with the reflected non-physical self and demanding to be seen as an integrated whole, the creation of a third presence is revealed. A completion. This new figure delivers creatures of a mythological or dream origin, such as the cyclical Ouroboros swallowing its own tail and constantly recreating itself. Thematic to the artist's body of work across mediums, these Rorschach forms offer viewers a wholly personal contemplation.
Using nothing but the human body as a tool, the light and dark as their array, the images speak of our inherent dualities through the vulnerability of skin and the strength of bone, the movement of hair and muscle, the unfolding and constriction of repose. They offer a look at both the independence of solitude and the warmth of a conjoined twin. They validate the tension between raw exposure and protective concealment. They invite us to gauge the distance between intimacy and divorce. Through the consistency of its unseen faces the photographs remark on both the anonymity of the individual and the universality of emotions, states of being, perspectives and journeys.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
● 2015
○ Anne Clergue Gallery - Arles, France 2000
○ Green Art Gallery - Dubai, UAE
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
● 2020
○ Wisdom & Nature - Christie's - New York, London
● 2019
○ The Lights We See - Standard Arts Young Artists Program, The Yard - New York, NY
○ SeeMe Exhibition Space - The Affordable Art Fair - New York, NY
● 2018
○ Anne Clergue Gallery - Arles, France
● 2017
○ Wisdom & Nature - PHILLIPS - London, Paris, New York
● 2010
○ Liquid Cities & Temporary Identities - Torun, Poland
○ Temporary Identities & Liquid Cities - The Hague, Netherlands
○ Liquid Cities, Sleepwalkers - Tallinn, Estonia
○ Performing Light - Video Art & Architecture - Bari, Italy
○ Liquid Cities - Video Art & Architecture - Calgary, Canada
○ Liquid Cities - International Video Art Festival - London UK
○ FICVAC Ojo al Sancocho - International ArtExpo - Bogota, Columbia
○ International ArtExpo - Gallipoli (Lecce), Itlay
○ Next IDentity - Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art - Gdansk, Poland
● 2009
○ Art Code - Jelmoni Studio Gallery - Milan, Italy
○ Essence - Galerie Art Fort Reveur - Bruxelles, Belgium
● 2008
○ Traces of Memory - Trevisan Art International - Estense Castle - Ferrara, Italy
○ Liquid Cities & Identities - Video Art & Architecture event - Micro Museum - Brooklyn, NY
○ Spatial Fluidity - Agora Gallery - New York, NY
○ Strawberry Hill, Jamaica
● 2007
○ Digital Long Island - Smithtown Township Arts Council - Long Island, NY
● 2006
○ ITP Group exhibition - Tisch School of the Arts (NYU) - New York, NY
○ Emerging Artists Group - Juried Exhibition
● 2005
○ ITP Group exhibition - Tisch School of the Arts (NYU) - New York, NY
● 2004
○ FLAT - Helen Lindhurst Fine Arts Gallery - Los Angeles, CA
● 2001
○ OTIS College of Art and Design group show - Los Angeles, CA
To learn more about Aranka Israni please visit her website or follow her on Instagram .