International

[a sound video installation]

Anawana Haloba works from the initial concept on mapping and at the same time she gives birth to different kinds of meaning. Watching the video one sees just a face profile and red tongue licking through a thick layer of salt. Pain shouts at you and a the same time the tongue tries to act like a sexual muscle showing both its strength and vulnerability. The work points to the notion of -how not been able speak a language- could be a painful handicap. The brutal and softness of the sound hits the violence and strength of the image. The softness brings in the intimacy. The video is physical, suggesting movement and time so much that you hear or see the map.

Anawana A Haloba: "My work is a reflection and comment of my own understanding of society and it’s crisis, and how and where is place myself. I also work with the state in which I am in now, trying to fit in society, which “is” becoming home and still clinging to a society that “is” home. The more I keep asking questions about my state of becoming and reflecting on the society then and the society now I turn to create work layered with meaning."

"My body plays an important role in creation of work or rather in honestly way stating my thought and understanding using “me”. I choose specific materials I touch, embracing, revealing and adding to their meaning. I like directness or what I usually refer to as honesty."