“Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?” Edward Lorenz
I am interested in systems and in how everything is connected but also too complex to be predicted.
I feel I am always navigating a network of facts and feelings that are affected by their surroundings, time and space.
I am essentially a photographer that loves working in a variety of mediums, from photography itself to installations, performances and even music. Not being bound to one way of expressing myself allows me to be free to experience a wide range of working methods that feeds my curiosity for many different subjects such as social behaviour, physics, telecommunication… just to name a few. I see this way of working functioning like a virtuous circle: the more I feed my curiosity the more connections I make.
Working as a Cultural & Heritage photographer puts at my disposal an even more expansive catalogue of information that enhances my connection making. One week I can be shooting a 4,000 year old object in Iraq, the next I am photographing a digital gadget at the Design Museum in London and the following month I can be teaching a specialised photography course to the main museums in Puerto Rico. This access to different cultures, timeframe of human minds and technology evolution in such a short period of time, makes me porous and mental systems connecting disparate things emerge organically.
Photography is the core of my process but the materials I use have to maintain a conversation with how I navigate the world. There will be a reason for everything I use in my artwork as to me all my works are holistically interconnected in an essential complexity.
I am opposed to mad consumerism and the excesses of 21st century living, so I aim at avoiding clutter and considering the physicality of the artwork in the world. This way of making is a reflection on the way I lead life. I am practical, pragmatic and thrifty. My flat that houses my studio and my everyday seeps through my practice harmoniously.
I aspire to understand the difference between wanting and needing and this approach helps me see some coherence in this unpredictable thing we call life.
+44 79 8383 3203 info@danitagen.com