ELLIE MAWBY

The question I am addressing revolves around connections — in one sense, it hints at the Japanese idea of the ‘Red String of Fate’ (the belief that everyone is connected by an invisible red string and are destined to meet and no matter how tangled the string gets, it will never break) as well as the connection between countries, the globalisation of art and how one country can adopt another’s style while still remaining their own — the confusion or mystery of a person’s identity.

In an interview I read regarding Daehyun Kim’s work, the interviewer states ‘I enjoy the lack of coulisses in your scenery it could happen anywhere, it seems to be universal’ — I too am drawn to the concept of my work being universal and not of a particular place or person, as well as the crossing of East and West and the idea of transnational art.

In regard to what area(s) I am exploring within my work, I use my interest in Japan and Eastern art to reflect what I make — taking hints of Japanese aesthetics, processes and ideas and applying them, while at the same time altering this to coincide with my own culture and style of art — drawings that combine Japanese visual traditions and Western modernism.