Parveen Dhatt

As a child, I used to be embarrassed going out with my dad to rummage through other people's trash, I'd rather have had the ground open and swallow me whole. Today, every alternating Wednesday is my favourite day of the week, it's recycle day, when I can look for treasures casually thrown out into the blue bin by neighbours. The girl children help out occasionally as the legacy must stay alive and continue-along the way I have garnered a post on their @ handles mocking my earth friendly and sustainable practice.

My mixed media collages are created from post consumer ‘waste’, remnants of everyday life; newspapers, food packaging, fast food wrappings, dried shrimp shells, denim, utility bill envelopes, flyers, Amazon boxes, beads, duct tape from older work and discarded fabric. These humble materials are rescued from an inevitable life decaying in landfills. Partially stripped of their identity and along with detritus collected from the studio floor together they construct a unique narrative and become objects of aesthetic value. This work illustrates the material possibilities of what most would consider trash while also maximizing the aesthetic potential of what would otherwise be considered waste objects.

My mixed media collages also serve to document, upon completion they become fossils that mine pop culture and act as irreverent critiques of mass consumption. The purpose is contradictory and a paradox, to evoke an emotional response from the viewer, while critiquing fast fashion. My purpose is for people to make empowering connections with the work when they recognize objects of daily use reflected back to them.

As a multi disciplinary and self taught artist, my practice also includes large abstract encaustic paintings and photography. The most important themes conveyed through these mediums are of time, history, culture, identity, hybridity, race, migration and dislocation. There is a clear attempt to remap our understanding of east/west throughout all of my work.

I hope you enjoy my gallery as much as I have loved creating these works! They really have to be seen in person to appreciate the texture and brilliant colours. Safe and socially distanced studio visits are welcome and alternatively artwork can be viewed through Zoom.

It’s worth the drive to Brampton!