Kiosk Blues (December 2021)
Artist's statement:
Not being able to go home for two years due to the pandemic has made me focus on themes of belonging, memory, and family within my art. I thought a lot more about my childhood in Bulgaria and key aspects of it which I feel represent my experience of it and wanted to combine that with the feelings of loss, nostalgia, and a search of belonging post immigration.
My grandad was a very key figure in my upbringing, early education, and introduction to art. A newspaper stand in which he worked in was one of the places where we spent a lot of time reading and also one of the physical things I felt like I could recreate.
I put up fairy lights to convey a sense of comfort in an enclosed, dark space. One of the walls has an opening which I made so I can position a TV there and have visitors watch a video. The shelves on the front two doors allowed me to exhibit printed matter on the outside, making a link to the original idea for the kiosk.
