Dhaatri Vengunad

NationalPoetryMonth.ca April 7, 2023

I-deal by Dhaatri Vengunad appears on NationalPoetryMonth.ca on April 7, 2023

Artist’s Statement

This piece, titled I-deal, is centred around the concept of an ideal life that people pursue or present. Our lives are whirlwinds but we also choose the ideal version of our whirlwinds. The ideal version of the world or self is itself a deal that we may make with ourselves (and this has been written purely in the first-person perspective), therefore the title I-deal.

The visual is a melange of colours that reflect our lives. It portrays a picture of the warm home (world) that we create, where the old (traditional home) exists with the new (techno colours). Amidst all of this, it’s the I (or U), sometimes standing alone, that is central.

Whirlwinds are often damaging. Societal pressures may make us someone other than who we really want to be.  However, the world is ours and the ‘U’ is important. These are some of the ideas that went into this piece of art.

As an artist, I work with canvas and paints, as well as digital media like photographs and illustrations. In my visual poems I work with things that I hear, see or experience around me in daily life. I am intrigued with how none of us have the same reality. I try to capture this in my art making it a series of windows to look through.

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