My practice blends melancholy with a spoonful of humor and a pinch of absurdity—creating a sweet and sour experience served through videos, music, performance, sculpture, and edible art. Through these media, I reflect on the tension between desire and reality that drives my work. A significant part of what I do involves 3D animations. I am fascinated by the deceptive qualities of CGI, which raise questions about realism and the boundaries between what is real and what is fabricated. This technique also suits my creative process, allowing me to create intimate worlds within a computer-based environment. The characters in my work long to be heard, loved, recognized, accepted, and sheltered. I explore these desires by staging failed dreams: the loneliness in the search for love, the sense of hostility in places that are supposed to be “home,” and superficial forms of spirituality—always revealing raw, hidden emotions. I often work with documentary subjects, particularly my own experiences, exposing deep wounds and embellishing them with fictional devices, using comedy as a way to balance the darkness. The comedic elements, much like fantasy, make these challenging aspects of reality more bearable. Over the years, particularly since migrating to the Netherlands six years ago, my existential themes have evolved into more socio-political topics. These now include the limitations and compromises of an atomized life, shaped by labor struggles and the housing crisis. Ultimately, my work speaks to those longing to belong and serves as a tool for connection and communal healing. I aim to create a bridge that, while aware of its inability to span the gap between fantasy and reality, provides a space where contradictions can coexist with both lightness and depth.
GRAW OPEN STUDIOS_stichting B.A.D.
Open studio as part of my residency at B.A.D. foundation, where I investigate the housing crisis.
GRAW-PERFORMANCE Stichting B.A.D.
Performance in the backyard of B.A.D. where we sing the "Gentrification blues" by O Sister, with members from the Rich choir , as part of my ongoing investigation about the housing crisis. I also read part of my reflections on the topic and fed the audience with cookies from the project "The house that inhabits you: if you cannot find a house to live in, let the house live inside you"
GRAW_exhibition
Second experiment of collective editing:
This time, we worked around the theme of Garden. From the mythic Garden of Eden to the realities of pesticides and urban green corners. We use a collective folder here to borrow and share video and audio materials. It is halfway between a traditional Exquisite Corpse exercise and our previous excercise, where each editor could completely re-edit the whole film.
Ariel: Under the sink.
"As I enter the kitchen, the manager tells me that the chef has left a note on my Christmas gift box. I read my misspelled name “Ariël" followed by the words: “just like the Mermaid, try swimming faster”. "
This is a performance tells the story of a daydreaming dishwasher who finds parallels between her life and the movie "The little mermaid"
Wrong Order - A Happening
This open-ended work slips against the “smooth city” ideal - those urban environments engineered for seamless efficiency, where every function works without friction and life runs on schedule all the time. That polished perfection is seductive but false; it hides t; it hides the instability, struggle, and inequality that underpin city life. In reality, things break, people stumble, systems fail. And in those moments of failure, real human connection - and sometimes resistance - can surface.
FILMDAKLEAKS
In its first presentation outside the TOT building, FilmDak has descended from the attic to the basement to present FilmDakLeaks, a site-specific work that serves as a collective statement.
Each of us worked individually for three days, editing from a shared video archive before passing it to the next member. Through this process, we have explored the nature of collaboration - it’s uneasiness, unpredictability, and the ways in which individual gestures can shape and transform the collective.
Performing "The monopoly guy" as part of Omid Kheirabadi's presentation in Art Rotterdam
Performing as "the monopoly guy" as part of Omid Kheirabadi's presentation in Art Rotterdam.
In this picture, I am empersonating a rich person begging for "Hooooouses from the poor to the rich, we need more houses" with my fancy Top Hat and even fancier moustache.
The House that inhabits you.
First performance of "The house that inhabits you", an ongoing investigation in which I propose an inversion of terms: if you cannot find a house to live in, let the house live inside you by eating house-shaped cookies.
Unfinished Film Festival
Daily activities include screenings and workshops of participants’ unfinished films, time in a mobile editing suite, shared meals, and collective walks in the beautiful park.
Carnisse Influx - A happening as part of Finnisage of theexhibition "What we build on"
𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘧𝘭𝘶𝘹: 𝘯𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 aims to collectively reflect on gentrification, and social transformation during the finnisage of the group exhibition 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙒𝙚 𝘽𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙 𝙊𝙣. In this event, you are welcome to become active participants and form a dialogue about the neighborhood's uncertain future with the project participants.
Open, by Rory Pilgrim in Snakken naar Boijmans
Singing performer for Rory Pilgrim's video