Artist Statement:
As an artist coming from a male-dominated conflict zone, I was forced to seek freedom from the political, physical, and psychological constraints that defined my environment. In order to do this, I began to make work that was inspired by anarchistic movements born of creativity, rage, and the individualism of the 1980’s. I search for extreme situations and people that embody possibilities of freedom. Through various media I collaborate with individuals, and by using this intimate process, we search together for ways to awaken the body and elicit the self through the construction of different characters. As a whole, the characters that emerge in my work are an indication of something raw and authentic. My submissions are excerpts from My brother Gil and I, a project that reveals the close relationship I have with my younger brother Gil, who was the first person that I was inspired by. Fourteen years ago I began photographing him as a way to reveal our close relationship and our mutual desire to live outside of the norm. Over the last ten years I have documented the sexual crisis of my brother and myself. The work followed our relationship during this time, characterized by role-playing and the shift of identities, challenging the notion of gender roles as well as familial ones, and is a personal archaeological journey that reveals our symbiotic existence as collaborative artists.