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name
Helene Mukhtar
media
painting
education
Florida State University
MFA Studio Art, 2006
The subway bombings in London and Madrid are the inspiration for this latest series of paintings and collages. My own photographs of subway trains, passengers and railway stations provide the basis of this investigation. These are transferred or glued to the canvas and become a visual jumping off point for my painted interpretations.
In this work, I contrast the vulnerability, helplessness and passivity of the subway riders to the hardness of their surroundings: the metal structures, beams, platforms and tunnels. The riders are reduced to “subway legs and subway shoes” which evolve in an angular, distorted and somewhat threatening environment described through flat surfaces and simple perspective.
In my art, I investigate how the fear of terrorism, globalization and the destruction of the environment affect both our individual psychological make-up and the society in which we live. The purpose of the work is to express our increasing feeling of insecurity in a visually intriguing and challenging way.