Looking back in time from the vantage point of the present, I can see that there have been many different phases in my life, which brought out certain manifestations of my being. There were times in which it was important to position myself rather strongly as a woman, then as a Kenyan, an African, an artist, who works with new artistic media, and so on. All those moments arose as necessary reactions, in dialogue with the environment I found myself in.
Over the last years it has clearly been especially interesting to become one artist body incorporating and expressing multiple perspectives. Recognizing my self as the merged identity of IngridMwangiRobertHutter seems to be an efficient way to relate to as well as address the world I live in. It proves both challenging and exciting to create a single evolving body of work. In this process, I discover that all things converge to a simple truth: we perceive ourselves to be very separate from everything else when, in fact, we are not. A sense of disjointedness prevails that prevents the bigger picture. So we can speak about ‘us‘ and ‘others‘, whatever the conceptualized grouping, as if they are indeed different entities existing in their own right. The danger is to remain forever apart in that exercise and never grow up.
My proposition is that differences should be acknowledged but not over-interpreted. Naturally, they need to enrich us rather than engender estrangement. And they ought to be discussed, bridged, adapted and transformed. We cannot afford to get stuck in complacent justifications, oversimplifications or fixations. I try to be aware of being part of an evolving process.
Tags: Body, Difference, Merged identity
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Am 21. September 2023 um 11:01 Uhr
You mention the danger of remaining apart from others in the exercise of conceptualizing ‘us’ and ‘others.’ How do you bridge this gap in your artistic practice, and what message or experience do you hope to convey to your audience through your work? how do you think about our student Style
Am 4. June 2024 um 10:09 Uhr
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