Alina Chamro
Painting and Drawing
Game Start
18″ x 15″
sand sculpture
2023
Description:
Alina Chamro is a Painting and Drawing major who has a background in finance and real estate. She recently returned to university to pursue her childhood dream of creating art. Through this degree, she is regaining her foothold in her own life, and she feels as if is rediscovering her true self. This sculpture acts as an ambiguous relic, frozen in time between the era of technological advances and of the world apocalypse. This sculpture of a game controller made of sand, which in of itself is related to notions of time through the hourglass, leaves viewers with questions rather than answers. It becomes ambiguous whether it was crafted in ancient times or if it is a greeting from the distant future warning us of a possible catastrophe. The use of sand creates an interactive element for viewers. Audience members are confronted with choices when observing this controller; they could feel it and touch the sand, imagine stepping on it; and see the cracks and a fallen piece off the shape, uncovering inside of the sand casket a modern game controller.
Childhood Quilt
40×30 in
acrylic paints and graphite pencil
2023
Description:
In Childhood Quilt, two images are juxtaposed against one-another. The large colourful background contrasts the smaller graphite figure. The bright landscape is a representation of my childhood memories, which often incorporated my mother’s hobby of making quilts. For me, this echoes the warm feeling of the intimate world of my inner child. The bird’s eye perspective recalls my childhood dreams of flying over the land, where there were no existing limits. The varying scale and elephants echo childlike dreams. The quilt represents a sense of home, as it is comforting and it symbolizes a safe place. The figure, representing an adult, is isolated from the rest of the image and devoid of any colours. We do not see his face, thus his emotions are uncertain. Perhaps he is sad, perhaps he’s wondering, or perhaps he is simply watching. Perhaps, the viewer is left to question the storyline, thus creating our own narrative.