Rabiya Nagi

My work explores transience of culture and identity through the influence of time and place. Layering as a concept and form of expression becomes important as I work across different art forms, each united through a strong sensation of colour.  Sometimes I turn the camera on myself to reflect on my own identity in a place between cultures but, here I differ from other artists dealing with concerns of identity who, like Cindy Sherman, for example, acquires the persona of other people in her disguises.

My painting and sculpture practice is figurative while video and text include conceptual concerns with identity, and sometimes these are played out by making casts of personal objects or through the medium of freezing and unfreezing familiar, ordinary, everyday objects which become artefacts of importance.  

I draw influence from many contemporary artists, as well as Modernists like Degas and Manet.  Music and surrealist writers like Kobo Abe have also influenced my work where a sense of otherness comes into play.  My family spans four continents and with eleven languages between us, the concept of the gaze comes into play as I continue to explore the space that exists between cultures.