MONICA-SHANTA

Artist Statement          

 

 

My art practice is a collage of many materials and outcomes. I use whatever media or processes suit an idea. I create digital images, objects, drawings, moving image digital film, interactive performance, and installations.

 

I focus on universally lived daily human experiences, such as Eating, Walking and Breathing, as inspirations for my work. Through my work I aim to make visible the magic of life in what we might usually experience as just the humdrum of the ‘everyday’, to make explicit the timeless divine within the ‘ordinary’.

 

I particularly love the form and geometry of circles, which are at the heart of natural forms, from molecules to solar systems, and are a recurring theme in my work as symbols of totality, wholeness, the Self, the infinite, and the cyclic timelessness of life.

 

I am fascinated by the power of repetition as it runs through all of lives, our beating hearts, the rhythm of our steps…….. and as it occurs in visual patterns throughout nature and art, and in cultural and spiritual traditions across the whole of humanity, such as the counting of rosary, ritual drumming, music…..

Focus on rhythm, repetition and pattern offers a portal to transcendent experiences for all of us as creators, participants, observers and audience.

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CV     Monica-Shanta

 

Web site          www.monica-shanta.net

Facebook         Monica-Shanta – Artist

YouTube          Monica-Shanta

Vimeo              Monica-Shanta

Instagram        monica_shanta_  ethno-constitutionals 

 

 

Solo Performance and Exhibitions

2019     ‘The Fried Egg Café’ - for Somerset Art Works, ‘Taunton Together’, Taunton, Somerset

2019     ‘The Fried Egg Café’ - for Somerset Art Works, The Engine Room, ‘Bridgewater Together’, Bridgewater, Somerset

2018      'The (Cake) Stall of Alternative Thoughts', 'Canteen' @ TOPOS, Art Week Exeter

2018      'The (Cake) Stall of Alternative Thoughts', 'Artistic Research Will Eat Itself'

SAR 9th International Conference, University of Plymouth

2017      'Performing Plaiting' - Performance, 'Between', The Arts Institute, University of Plymouth

2017      'Performing Plaiting' - Performance, Plymouth Art Weekender, Mills Bakery, Royal William Yard,

Plymouth

2016     ‘Sitting on the Throne for Breathing’ - Performance, Plymouth Art Weekender, Mills Bakery, Royal William Yard, Plymouth

2015     ‘The Fried Egg Café’ - Interactive Performance and Edible Art Experience, Crosspoint, University of Plymouth

2014     ‘Rubbish’, Birdwood House, Totnes, Devon

2013      ‘Masala Mandala’ installation exhibited as part of  SOAS Multi-lingualism Week,

SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), University of London.

2012     ‘The Moving House Art Sale’ - An Open House Art Sale, Islington, London

2007     ‘Conception Cake Café’ - An Open House Edible Art Experience, Islington, London

200       ‘Mandalas and Mandorlas’. - The Literary Cafe, Islington, London 

 

 

Exhibitions of Education and Community Residencies and Projects 

2020     ‘Foster Family Stories’, AWEsome Artspace, Paris Street, Exeter

2020     ‘Foster Family Stories’, Online Exhibition – Daisi.org.uk

2018      'Re-boot' Uncovering Exeter's Layers of History, St Stephens Church, Exeter

2018      'Museum Machina', Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter

2017      'A Collage of the Blackdown Hills' Hemyock Healthy Living Centre, Hemyock, Devon

 

 

Curator

2018     'Canteen' @ TOPOS, Exeter Art Week

2013     ‘Parallax’ - an Exhibition by Artists of Mixed-Heritage and Mixed-Ethnicity 

Curator, and Participating Artist, Mile End Art Pavillion, London     www.mixed-other-art.net

2012     ‘Mixed-Other’ - an Exhibition by Artists of Mixed-Heritage and Mixed-Ethnicity

Curator, and Participating Artist, Islington Arts Factory, London     www.mixed-other-art.net