Ocean STEENKAMP 2024

Through my work I process the positive and negative aspects within my personal experience of having a body. With repetitive line work of drawings I am able to process and meditate on these varying experiences of the way my body connects with nature and man made objects. As well as how existing around other people has made me interact with my body and gender.

I look at social spaces as the structure that grounds community and the body as the structure that centres the individual. Through my drawings I document these places and spaces that I love to be in with others. Through oil painting I am able to use colour and brush strokes to show the vibrance, movement and joy in experiencing the body with others. In my crochet work I look at my relationship to my gender and find connections between myself and my grandmothers through handwork. All these mediums and series collage together the way that these aspects coexist.

My understanding of myself is contingent upon my understanding of the world and my surroundings therefore the way that I work focuses on various aspects of existence that create a mind map of the important parts of existing in the body.