For most of his life, 35 year old artist Kanesh Thabendran has lived in a war zone where every day was a struggle for survival amid exploding bombs and falling artillery shells. He watched as his neighbours and friends lost their relatives, their homes and their possessions. These losses are reflected in his work in the form of cut outs that appear in his collages and paintings.
“As an artist I collect and make photographs and photo cutting collages. Through that I create my own visual language. By questioning the relationship between memory and experience, I employ remembrance in my daily practice. My works are an act of social reflection in which the subconscious plays an important role,” he says.