YOU TALKING TO ME? OK, I’M GOING TO PAINT YOUR THINGS

You talking to me? OK, I'm going to paint your things, 2014
Installation:  watercolor and pencil, 
Installation views: Gallery LNM, Oslo
Photo credits: Shwan D. Q.
Support: Oslo Municipality & Kulturrådet (The Culture Council)

What does an interior say about the person who owns it? The project behind the exhibition in Oslo’ Galleri LNM looks at the complex elements surrounding people's sense of belonging to their own roots and, at the same time, examines possessions as symbols of cultural background. This background defines the choices of the assets we choose to surround ourselves with. It is also important for what we accept within the borders of our "own little homeland", where we live. The story that our possessions tell is often clearer than what one is aware of. The interiors act as a frame around us - both real and practical, adapted to the realism of finances and life situation. Qaradaki has chosen to take a closer look at twelve homes and their subjective investments. The homes belong to people the artist knows, from different parts of the world and with different backgrounds. The interiors look seemingly ordinary and not very foreign, but have a range in them, and can be read from the viewer's own ideas about cultural and social strata. The artist reproduces the interiors in a traditional realistic design. Something that gives the prosaic interiors an exaltation. To the viewer, the paintings appear as indirect portraits of strangers. Qaradaki touches a universal and human chord – the longing for belonging and value.
 
[an excerpt from the exhibition text by Line Ulekleiv]
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