DREAM
I feel like artists do have a very unique and raw voice that no other profession has and with it, it has the ability to talk about really important and sensitive issues and also the sociopolitical issues based on their respective countries.
I CREATED MY OWN IMAGINARY WORLD OF WHAT I SAW AND PUT IT ON PAPER OR SCULPTURE.
IT WAS A WAY TO EXPRESS WHAT I WAS GOING THROUGH IN A WAY THAT WORDS COULD NOT.
On her pursuit of performing art and sculpting as a full time career
Growing up in Malaysia, art was never really emphasized in school and I never thought taking up art as a career was even an option because I grew up in a society where they deemed artists as lesser professions than doctors or lawyers, but my parents were always really supportive and they realised how important art was to me. The joy it brought and the great impact it had on me as a person. They encouraged me to pursue my passion and take it on as a career. I feel like artists do have a very unique and raw voice that no other profession has and with it, it has the ability to talk about really important and sensitive issues and also the sociopolitical issues based on their respective countries.
The themes of the female body and mental health are definitely the main topics of my work because I wanted to make it a point to challenge social constructs that are set in place surrounding the female body, and the other taboos and false perceptions that are associated with mental health.
On her journey dealing with mental health issues, the taboos that surround it and the female body, her stay at a psychiatric home and how it contributes to her art
Growing up, I suffered from terrible anxiety and was diagnosed with a list of things; bipolarism, borderline personality disorder and schizophrenia. These were just a few things that I was diagnosed with, and at the time I had no idea what it was, causing panic. Art became this way of tackling what I later came to realise was a form of mental illness because with schizophrenia as a child I would hear and see things and I would tell people. Hence, my way of dealing with it and reflecting on what I was going through was translating my experience into a physical form. I created my own imaginary world of what I saw and put it on paper or sculpture.
On the themes of the female body implemented into her art
The themes of the female body and mental health are definitely the main topics of my work because I wanted to make it a point to challenge social constructs that are set in place surrounding the female body, and the other taboos and false perceptions that are associated with mental health. There is an information deficit concerning the female body in Malaysia, and it’s not really spoken about, and if spoken about it occurs within private spheres amongst women. This is what I wanted to challenge; the boundaries that are set in place that require these conversations to be limited to those private spheres and by exposing my own personal story it’s no longer part of a private sphere but now available to the public sphere.
On her pursuit of performing art and sculpting as a full time career.
Growing up in Malaysia, art was never really emphasized in school and I never thought taking up art as a career was even an option because I grew up in a society where they deemed artists as lesser professions than doctors or lawyers, but my parents were always really supportive and they realised how important art was to me. The joy it brought and the great impact it had on me as a person. They encouraged me to pursue my passion and take it on as a career. I feel like artists do have a very unique and raw voice that no other profession has and with it, it has the ability to talk about really important and sensitive issues and also the sociopolitical issues based on their respective countries. - text next to portrait
On the phantasmagorical elements and surrealistic aspects in her art
There are elements of phantasmagoria in my art in relation to my experience with endometriosis; it was like translating my experience into form. It's kind of like what I imagined it [my endometriosis] to be and confronting it, reflecting on it and also coming to terms with it. It's a big thing to be able to come to terms with it, but the difference lies between giving it a form and being able to ‘talk to it’. My art definitely has a sense of surrealism to it because obviously, that’s not what [the sculpture] looks like.
KARA INEZ
Kara Inez (@karzmarz), Performance Art and Sculptor
Kara is a Malaysian artist and sculptor based in Singapore. Creating sculptures and performance art pieces derived from her personal experiences of mental health and the female body, she challenges social constructs by bringing in the feeling of disgust among her audiences. Through her art, she tackles her own mental health issues and provides a platform to spread awareness on these issues.
Written by Vrinda Maheshwari & Jamie Lee
Photography by Leonard Wong
I feel like artists do have a very unique and raw voice that no other profession has and with it, it has the ability to talk about really important and sensitive issues and also the sociopolitical issues based on their respective countries.
I CREATED MY OWN IMAGINARY WORLD OF WHAT I SAW AND PUT IT ON PAPER OR SCULPTURE.
IT WAS A WAY TO EXPRESS WHAT I WAS GOING THROUGH IN A WAY THAT WORDS COULD NOT.
The themes of the female body and mental health are definitely the main topics of my work because I wanted to make it a point to challenge social constructs that are set in place surrounding the female body, and the other taboos and false perceptions that are associated with mental health.
On her pursuit of performing art and sculpting as a full time career
Growing up in Malaysia, art was never really emphasized in school and I never thought taking up art as a career was even an option because I grew up in a society where they deemed artists as lesser professions than doctors or lawyers, but my parents were always really supportive and they realised how important art was to me. The joy it brought and the great impact it had on me as a person. They encouraged me to pursue my passion and take it on as a career. I feel like artists do have a very unique and raw voice that no other profession has and with it, it has the ability to talk about really important and sensitive issues and also the sociopolitical issues based on their respective countries.
The themes of the female body and mental health are definitely the main topics of my work because I wanted to make it a point to challenge social constructs that are set in place surrounding the female body, and the other taboos and false perceptions that are associated with mental health.
On her journey dealing with mental health issues, the taboos that surround it and the female body, her stay at a psychiatric home and how it contributes to her art
Growing up, I suffered from terrible anxiety and was diagnosed with a list of things; bipolarism, borderline personality disorder and schizophrenia. These were just a few things that I was diagnosed with, and at the time I had no idea what it was, causing panic. Art became this way of tackling what I later came to realise was a form of mental illness because with schizophrenia as a child I would hear and see things and I would tell people. Hence, my way of dealing with it and reflecting on what I was going through was translating my experience into a physical form. I created my own imaginary world of what I saw and put it on paper or sculpture.
On the themes of the female body implemented into her art
The themes of the female body and mental health are definitely the main topics of my work because I wanted to make it a point to challenge social constructs that are set in place surrounding the female body, and the other taboos and false perceptions that are associated with mental health. There is an information deficit concerning the female body in Malaysia, and it’s not really spoken about, and if spoken about it occurs within private spheres amongst women. This is what I wanted to challenge; the boundaries that are set in place that require these conversations to be limited to those private spheres and by exposing my own personal story it’s no longer part of a private sphere but now available to the public sphere.
On her pursuit of performing art and sculpting as a full time career.
Growing up in Malaysia, art was never really emphasized in school and I never thought taking up art as a career was even an option because I grew up in a society where they deemed artists as lesser professions than doctors or lawyers, but my parents were always really supportive and they realised how important art was to me. The joy it brought and the great impact it had on me as a person. They encouraged me to pursue my passion and take it on as a career. I feel like artists do have a very unique and raw voice that no other profession has and with it, it has the ability to talk about really important and sensitive issues and also the sociopolitical issues based on their respective countries.
On the phantasmagorical elements and surrealistic aspects in her art
There are elements of phantasmagoria in my art in relation to my experience with endometriosis; it was like translating my experience into form. It's kind of like what I imagined it [my endometriosis] to be and confronting it, reflecting on it and also coming to terms with it. It's a big thing to be able to come to terms with it, but the difference lies between giving it a form and being able to ‘talk to it’. My art definitely has a sense of surrealism to it because obviously, that’s not what [the sculpture] looks like.
