Artist Statement:
Namaskar (Greetings),
Last month, I came across a quote in my university textbook, and I have never related to anything else to this extent, “Once you leave your place of birth, there’s never a complete sense of centre: you’re always in the state of in between and nowhere completely feels like home”. A curator once asked me, “Where are you in your Art?” Since then, I thought about this question a lot. So, I did what I usually do, introspect. Until now, I experimented with different styles, topics and ideas, but didn’t really have a main concept that I was trying to showcase. There are many feelings that I made works about - happiness, sadness, frustration, love, hope etc. I observe human behaviour, and I am interested in human psychology. Now that I am in my third year of my undergraduate Fine Arts degree, I am focusing on a series of artwork that tells a story about me, answering who I was before and who I am after I moved to Canada almost three years ago. The artworks are about two versions of myself. I want to show parallels between my experiences of being home and being away from home in a different country. I am exploring various themes like time and distance, self-growth, relationships with people and emotional connection. These themes will be shown through the lens of an international student. The artworks will consist of multiple mediums including drawing, painting, video and possibly photography.
Dhanyavaad (Thank you)
Dhanyavaad (Thank you)
Last month, I came across a quote in my university textbook, and I have never related to anything else to this extent, “Once you leave your place of birth, there’s never a complete sense of centre: you’re always in the state of in between and nowhere completely feels like home”. A curator once asked me, “Where are you in your Art?” Since then, I thought about this question a lot. So, I did what I usually do, introspect. Until now, I experimented with different styles, topics and ideas, but didn’t really have a main concept that I was trying to showcase. There are many feelings that I made works about - happiness, sadness, frustration, love, hope etc. I observe human behaviour, and I am interested in human psychology. Now that I am in my third year of my undergraduate Fine Arts degree, I am focusing on a series of artwork that tells a story about me, answering who I was before and who I am after I moved to Canada almost three years ago. The artworks are about two versions of myself. I want to show parallels between my experiences of being home and being away from home in a different country. I am exploring various themes like time and distance, self-growth, relationships with people and emotional connection. These themes will be shown through the lens of an international student. The artworks will consist of multiple mediums including drawing, painting, video and possibly photography.
Dhanyavaad (Thank you)
Dhanyavaad (Thank you)
Artist Bio:
Dhairya Vaidya was born in Gujarat, India in 2002. He started taking drawing classes in grade four, and by the time he was 14, art was his passion. Since then, he has pursued training in a range of mediums and styles, including acrylics, watercolour, oil, graphite, charcoal, and coloured pencil. He takes a methodical approach to art creation, with a structured workflow that is as much as part of his process as the mark-making, considering the artwork conceptually long before putting anything on paper.
Dhairya experiments with hybrid mediums consisting of both traditional and digital art. He is currently working on a series of artworks that tells a story about him, answering who he was before and who he is after he moved to Canada almost three years ago. He aims to show parallels between being home and being away from home as an international student by exploring themes like time and distance, self-growth, relationships with people and emotional connection.
Dhairya is currently pursuing his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Digital Media and Design in a joint program between Brandon University and Assiniboine College in Brandon, Canada.
Edited by Lucie Lederhendler
Dhairya Vaidya at the opening reception of his first solo Exhibition titled "Hi, You can call me Oreo"