Asiya Clark: Affinity
Preview: Saturday 20th May 7pm
Exhibition continues until Saturday 8th July
Gallery open Weds-Sat 11am-9pm
Asiya Clarke’s work is about losing and finding oneself in nature. Connecting inner and outer worlds she attempts to find signs and metaphors that extend from the particular to the universal.
Her work is built up from photos of nature, some of which are used directly as source material for paintings. Others undergo a process of collaging. Introducing figurative imagery in the collages suggest human presence and become a playful commentary on psychological and spiritual states and conditions.
Affinity
The veins in my body
Are the veins in the leaves
Every dot and circle is an eye, an awareness
Every bird rising
Rises in my chest
Wings beating against my ribcage
Smaller than a speck of dust
I am the wide earth
My breath sweeps over deserts
Eddying in hollows
It rises over mountains
To release my sweat and tears
Every drop is numbered
Every wound is a death
Each ache is a birth
Red rivers carry life to my organs
Each cell rejoices
My dance is the solar system
Embraced by love
Asiya Clarke grew up on a farm in Zimbabwe. The beautiful natural environment she experienced as a child is one of the main inspirations in her work. She studied Fine Art at the University of Cape town, South Africa before moving to the UK and teaching in St. Albans. Asiya studied MA arts practice at Goldsmiths College, London in 2008 and was selected for the Saatchi 4 New Sensations exhibition. She currently paints from her elysium gallery studio in Swansea City centre.
www.asiyaclarke.org
Instagram:@clarkeasiya
