IB Art Final Exhibition Guide 2019 IB Art Exhibition Guide 2019 | Page 16

Barkat Mehra Renée Ojikutu
My art can be encapsulated by the words of Francis
Bacon, ‘If you can talk about it, why paint it?’ This
statement has nurtured both the process and themes
behind my artwork by intertwining the disciplines
between academic theories and different artistic
media. My aim is to illustrate emotions and ideas
which cannot be expressed in words by forming a
connection between our physical and natural world.
For each piece that I create, my vision follows the
theme of distortion between humans and nature, and
how our physical and imaginary interpretations drive
us to believe or associate reality with assumptions. The ability for art to affect those that observe it is a mantra that has fuelled my work over the past two
years. Architecture is, for me, one of the most interactive and exciting forms of art that exists. The rules and
boundaries are constantly expanding and changing in order to keep up with the progression of society, and this
evolution is something I aimed to channel with my art. Throughout the course this concept of taking something
and reinventing it has inspired my work. A particular example of this was one of my later pieces where I took
the idea of cocoon-like structures and how I could take the fundamental concepts of the shapes they formed
and remake them via my own interpretation, combining nature with design. Like this piece, my other works
were constantly inspired by my surroundings and in particular the sounds I observed and how I could construct
art that connected these different senses and sensation in a holistic way; much like artist Kengo Kuma who
produced work for one of my favourite installations, Sensing Spaces, where he aimed to highlight the prominent
use of other senses.
I began this exploration of distortion via portraiture
and used family and friends in order to connect
culture with practice. Having explored various media:
painting, etching, photography and life drawings
individually, I decided to experiment with mixed
media. This is displayed in my later artworks linking
dysmorphia to nature, expressing the ease at which
humans have the ability to take nature’s place. I
combined the technique of marbling with photography
and juxtaposed the colours with the simplicity of
nature in order to achieve this series of work.