Sandim Mendes
Diaspora - textile - conceptual - photography - graphics
In my practice I use photography as a starting point to explore the concept of identity within and between cultures. Born in the Netherlands with a Cape Verdean background, I start from an intersectional context, where I see these two worlds as the basis for my artistic research. Through photography, performance, textiles, drawing, printing techniques and installation, I produce work that deals with intersecting layers of personal and political histories.
My work reconstructs historical and speculative stories, and creates characters and personalities that emerge from this reconstruction process. Photography has become a useful medium in this practice because of its use in processes of historicization, its function as a memory aid and its archival and evidentiary value.
I combine photographic techniques with printing techniques (including on textiles), but also sound (spoken text), etc. I in turn combine these elements in installations.