BALTIMORE ARTIST SARADA CONAWAY

Sarada Conaway, apartment study I, 2008 digital photographs dimensions/prints material vary

It is hard to believe that is has been a year since I made the move back to the Baltimore area and decided that I was going to continue my efforts in participating in an artistic and/or politically-driven community in Baltimore. One thing is for sure, politically as a city Baltimore will not compare to Washington, D.C. (for obvious reasons for sure).

One person that I have had the pleasure of keeping in contact with in the DC-College Park area is one of my favorite local artists and a good friend, Sarada Conaway.

The picture above is taken from a series she participated in titled "Los Solos Series".

Her explanation for doing work is something that I encourage in artists and I can identify with when I am viewing art. The need to connect art to the implication of our reality outside of art, blurring the lines where art has a context... it is simply necessary. Sarada Conaway explains:

Through my work, I attempt to remove the division between everyday life and art. Recently, I have collaborated with “sample populations” of self-selected participants to create photographs. This process has mirrored institutional uses for photography and data collection. The banal, uniform aspects of this project act as a foil to its intention-inviting people to deviate from expected behavior.

Part of this series was part of her graduate thesis. This was taken from her Art Thesis as a graduate from the University of Maryland, which also has samples of her work:http://www.artgallery.umd.edu/exhibit/287.08/index.php?page=conaway


Sarada Conaway, Suit Study 4 2007-2008 collaboration with Aniko Macransy, 50 archival photographs

P.S. You can't see it but I participated in one of her social experiments; I'm one of the few that is wearing that red suit!

(Also, all images are copyrighted from the artist and are not to be used for commercial purposes.)