I Challenge The Idea Of Identity

Let me introduce myself first. My name is Sirio Berati. I’m a 18 years old Albanian visual artist living in Montreal, Canada. I call myself a visual artist as I have been exploring many areas of art and variety of themes. Identity is for sure one of my favorites. It all started last year when I held my very first exhibition. Well, actually, it started four years ago when I got exposed to photography, but I call the establishment of my exhibition one of my biggest achievements, which officially identifies me as a visual artist.

My exhibition is called “Approaching Chaos” and itself talks about the change. Honestly, it is more complicated than that. My aim is to explore my ideas through different stages of self-development and show the process of adapting to the new world. It’s an exhibition which guides one to self-realization.

“Approaching Chaos” presents a typography installation, a human head sculpture, an acrylic painting, and 5 different digital photographic series: "Descending into the Blue Void", "Blue Klein Sea", "In the stormy sky" and finally "Impeded by cultural taboo". Even though the pieces are significantly different in the way they are presented, unfold and created, together they follow a quite complex and a coherent narrative of gratification.

“Conflicting journey to reality”, seen below, is my most successful outcome from “Approaching Chaos”. This artwork was an award-wining piece in the national scale in the UK for the new emerging artists!

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This piece itself talks about dreams that often are a substitute to reality. The conflict is established when the character fights itself in order to reach a so portrayed imaginary hyper-reality; a realm of magic. The subconscious is portrayed on the right, whilst the conscious is on the center and the ideal self is on the left. Again, the process of self-realization and transformation is established. The image is as well associated with a dream-catcher, protecting the character from fears that the present holds.

This artwork is the continuation of the narrative from "Descending Into the Blue Void". At this point, the protagonist has reached the blue void emotionally. The piece is monochrome, containing only tones and hues of blues, especially blue 27, creating a distorted surreal image, in this way establishing artist’s intrinsic emotions. The construction of this piece and the portrait details were influenced by Ian Macarthur and Gabi Trinkaus.

"The Blue Klein Sea" series are inspired by Yves Klein. This work relates to me personally as the sea and the way different colors collide by creating a harmonic relationship has been always fascinating to me. The blue hues are used to paint the pieces in acrylic. The message that I try to convey is unclear. It is open to viewer's interpretations.

"Impeded by cultural taboo" are the series of two artworks, each in a different medium. Both of these pieces portray the expectation of society to conform to the cultural norms. In this piece we can see how the same cultures go along together even though it is not the part of their choice. This piece is different from "Creation of Adam" as three hands instead of two are being presented, challenging the historical concept of Michelangelo, where the third hand becomes an obstacle for cultural integration.