Ordinary Affects Series – Abstract Art

I believe abstract art is a manifestation of our curiosity about the material world and an essential part of what it is to be human.

I am a trained Anthropologist, so there is also that element of social commentary in my work. I’ve called this series of abstract art Ordinary Affects. I am exploring the concept of borders in the crisscrossing and colliding lines, different rectangular shapes, earthy colours, and textures. More so, I explore the problematic but sometimes liberating experiences people of colour have had with borders, past and present.

Ordinary Affects is a phrase coined by American Professor of Anthropology Kathleen Stewart. Stewart explains that these are “public feelings that begin and end in broad circulation, but they’re also the stuff that seemingly intimate lives are made…”

Therefore, Ordinary Affects can be thought of as those collective horrors or delights expressed as either gasps, sighs, or umms and ahhs due to some good or bad shared experience. For me, Ordinary Affects are best described in modern forms of abstract art.