Xaviera Hardjopawiro

The place of interaction. At first, I was desperately concerned and in search of such a place where the body and its consciousness merged. The mystery of the mind is a subject that always had my interest; it is a very complex phenomenon to try to make sense of. What I realised along the way, is that my interest in this merging came from a deeper yearning and understanding of finding oneself in the world. How do we relate to the world? How do you relate to the world? By reflecting on everything that I could understand from my own physical experience and those around me, I could somehow get closer to some ‘truth’. Ultimately this understanding is a very personal one, as Terence McKenna stated; ‘Just deal with the raw data and trust yourself’. To me, intuition plays a big part in trusting oneself. Every individual has been brought up in a particular culture and surrounding with particular values, beliefs and customs. All these political, social and economic factors play an important role in the cognitive development of the individual. As Karin Barad stated in her theory of Intra-action, Existence is not an individual affair. The unfamiliar grounds are of great importance in my artistic practice. I question the flat image/language in contrast with the three-dimensionality of things, mainly through collages and installations. With my work i would like to revisit the misconceptions of value, (human) nature and truth. (2018)