60 - Emanuela H Sintamarian- Abbreviated dictionary of small accidents turned into melancholic disillusions

Abbreviated dictionary of small accidents turned into melancholic disillusions by Emanuela H Sintamarian (2022) acrylic, gouache on canvas, 24" x 18” Work is signed on verso (back) 

While a name is a cosmic prison, identity is its guardian. As a Romanian immigrant to the United States, I live in and between two diametrically opposed cultures; from a once totalitarian regime to a society in which individuality and information are paramount. I often dwell upon the relationship of my identity to my displacement, and the ways I have devised to reconcile these incongruous elements. To translate this dilemma formally, my current body of work tackles the dichotomy between containment and liberation by infusing a static diagram with a charge that propels it into motion. 

I incorporate in my visual lexicon, elements which either borrow directly from or reference Eastern European folklore, the geometric structures of Suprematism, the line possibilities of Constructivism, the aesthetic of automatisms, topographical maps, as well as anatomical and architectural diagrams. I let the visual structure of my work be fueled and reconfigured by the anti-establishment iconography of the popular culture such as graffiti marks and stenciling.  

As an artist, I am interested in choices: what remains to be seen, what is absent, and how decisions are made.   When I make art, I do not think of art; I do not think in terms of right or wrong, but rather what is true to myself, to a particular moment and idea. I believe that painting/ drawing/ printmaking, the act of making art is in a space of not knowing.