Kresge Art Center
600 Auditorium Rd, East Lansing, MI 48824
USA
SEMITRANSPARENT
Leila Malekadeli BFA Solo Exhibition
Kresge Art Center Gallery 114
February 26-March 2, 2018
ARTIST STATEMENT
Identity is fluid. It is pieced together. It intersects. It can be lost and then found. It can bend, break, and be mended. It is a continuous growth.
SemiTransparent features introspection, reflection, and restraint in an amplified, complex retrieval of identity specific to gender, language, and privacy. Although these works speak to my own identity and experience, they are made to be universal. Through the exertion of working in three-dimensions, I labor through my emotions, stubbornness, and vulnerabilities. It forces me to consistently question ideas of self-worth and arbitrary values within the constructs of social hierarchies. I allow my work to dictate the materials used – metal, paper, wood, clay, textile, electronics – and I allow materiality to shape forms that both substantiate and oppose. The idea of lending oneself to a material aids in underscoring my point of view. Working in mixed media, I derive intimacy from the use of scale and monumentality as well as its reversal. The act of repetition illuminates the obsessive qualities embedded in the processes of my work, while allowing the full context to remain elusive to the viewer.
– Leila Malekadeli