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Neena Arora
Dangled-Up, 2000

Digital print
11.5" x 17"

Neena Arora

 

The digital images in Dangled-Up are hybrids: my face and body placed into unreal environments. I have placed myself into an atmospheric space, portraying a dreamy/hovering sensation. This space is artificial.

These images relate to my identity, and living in North America in a constantly changing urban environment. I am of mixed heritage and have identified with both 'sides' (South Asian and Irish American - raised in Canada). I feel displaced but a security exists within this. A floating in-between feeling. I refer to 'popular culture' in my work, as North America is always in the process of creating itself. Within this culture are many individuals are who linking directly to strong traditions and cultures of 'other places'. This displacement that we face, requires re-inventing, re-creating and at times artifice.

In the end I want these to be strange yet beautiful illusions. They are somewhat surreal.

Neena Arora has been creating installation works and performances since the time that she left Ontario College Of Art And Design in 1993. She has shown with SAVAC and other artist collectives in and around Toronto. Primarily her work references issues of identity and the body. Upcoming group exhibitions will be held at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, and the Queens Public Library Gallery, New York.

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