BFA+MFA 2023

Dalal Johar

My Brain and Other Things

Painting and Printmaking

Share

I’m for all art, I’m for expressive art, mundane art, unassuming art, accidental art, art that I make and art that I view. The art I am advocating for has no boundaries and does not fit into a box or allow you to check items off a list. The art I am for comes from anyone, anywhere, and anytime with no specifications, and that is what I try to portray with my art. 

The ideas I usually have start big and broad with no specific direction for me to take them in. So, I devised a thought process, which is the “filtration system”. With this, I take my ideas and my preliminary process as well as my stream of consciousness, then break them into a few components and choose what I want to work with the most. This part is crucial because I like having these things prepared in advance and ready for me to use. With my process, I tend not to have reference images to go back to as it forms a constraint on the flow of my process, which tends to drift a lot.

For my thesis project, I have been working with the concept of a book and pushing the limitations and common understanding of what a book is. Something that is not traditional, bound, and filled with papers and words. In this project, “My brain and other things”, I explore a plethora of techniques, themes and materials. Some of these include analogue and digital art, different textures, images, photography, paintings, drawings, text, writing, inks, paints, colors, papers and so much more. This project has been a daily documentation of my journey and an exploration of my movement through the world. It also incorporates some of my earlier works, which dealt with issues such as gender stereotypes, pop art, typography, cynicism, and social criticism.