Med 160, Creative Statement

Nothing fascinates me more than the human experience and being able to communicate it in a way that incites an emotional response from someone who never went through it. I hope to create art of every form that can move others in ways they never thought they could before. When I look at the works of art that I connected with the most, the ones that left deep indents in my idea of what it meant to tell a story, I find those storytellers pulled me in and overwhelmed me with a connection of emotion.

That’s what I want my work to be about. Regardless of being small or big, fiction or nonfiction, subjective or objective, I hope my work is able to inspire a connection with humanity through empathy. To recognize it’s wonderous existence which needs more attention. The tiny details that make up an image and weave together an imperfectly perfect human experience. Reality in a way that is so familiar yet jarring in its display. 

One of the best examples of this for myself is the song “Saturn” by Sleeping at Last. The way the tiniest details create an experience of melancholy is one that I will always hold as a standard for my work. Another example is the Pakistani drama Dastaan–a story of the creation of Pakistan and all that was gained and lost in that journey was displayed through raw human interaction. The show didn’t rely on huge gestures, rather, through small and subtle details like the flicker of excitement or sadness in the eyes of the characters. The colors and the music only added to the experience. The show made me feel loss and passion and anger in ways my 10-year-old self didn’t have access to. It opened doors of emotions within me. The Turkish show Kurt Seyit Ve Sura in several ways did the very same. The filmography was entirely encompassing in the way it drew audiences to that era and into the fragile relationships of the main characters. 

Through my work, you can expect to see art made out of the tiny details of everyday life. Waves of melancholy threaded through the mundane and familiar. Stories behind the eyes you meet at random on the streets. The woman you sit with on the train. The street vendor whose smile you notice every morning. The Starbucks employee you see speeding through the numerous orders of coffee, lost and in complete trance with the task at hand. Hundreds of thoughts and emotions flying through his head and his eyes. A squint, a smile, a flash of anger, tiredness or even emptiness. It means finding art in the mundane and relaying it as a piece of beauty.