Maya Mulvey-Santana | Artist 

Exhibiting artist at 'Things I Wanted To Say But Never Did' | Group Exhibition. 

Opens to the public 4th September 2019, 6pm - 8pm.  

Tell us about yourself.

My work is interested in the complicated and muddy self-identity.  I first became interested in this notion of identity when I was making work about my relationship to my late father, and how that was related to shame I felt around my Chilean heritage, and my inability to connect with it.  I kept trying to distill myself into a neat package that I felt my father could be proud of, only to find that the more fragments uncovered about myself, the less I could reconcile those fragments together. I realised that I was constantly shifting, a constellation of irreconcilable forces and fragments.  I saw myself a kindred spirit to the colour pink - a colour who also constantly shifted and contradicted itself, and soon became obsessed with using it as a method for exploring personal themes around identity. I love to work with archival material, like old letters and family photographs, allowing the archival process to then seep into paintings and video works, which often have fragmented narratives that play with the relationality of various found and created materials.

What can the audience expect of your response to the theme?

You can expect multiple fragments from different personal narratives, each explored individually, that all speak to each other to create a new narrative of grief and healing.  Each fragment is its own shade of pink, and it’s own complex emotional moment.

Describe yourself in 3 words 

Assertive, Rosy, and Contrary.

If you could say 1 thing to an ex lover, what would you say?

I’m glad I found you when I did, and I’m glad I left you when I did.

ARTIST BIO: Maya Mulvey-Santana is a multidisciplinary artist who uses personal narrative, feminist approaches to the archive and the colour pink to explore identity as a constellation of irreconcilable forces and fragments.

Follow Maya on Instagram here: @maya_theartist

https://contactsheet.com.au/blogs/exhibitions/things-i-wanted-to-say-but-never-did-exhibition