web: zaramakhdoom.com

Artist's statement

Our bodies are constantly evolving in reaction to the social and political hierarchies that are communicated to us. Repeatedly absorbing information situates us between structures and substructures. Our everyday reactions and engagement with this data is what my work explores and plays with. My practice aims to create a conversation around certain preconceived notions about commonplace practices and objects that we encounter, observe and consume. Especially by manipulating materials that have a political history embedded within them and their practice.

I am interested in the structures of reporting, enforcing of borders and the exoticising of the Orient in western history, specifically as a marketing tool. Currently I have been exploring the history of hair removal, hair donation, the moral arguments and value systems surrounding it. Especially focusing on the Ironic use of the Middle Eastern woman as a hairless sexualised object (a tool for marketing), alongside the modern industrial process of hair production that enables the global market.

The idea of using time is important to me, to lend my body and labour into the creation of work. My practice has a multidisciplinary approach where I may use different mediums to best convey my ideas, this can move from sculpture to photography to the use of legal contracts.