Pleasure Seeker
2020
mixed media
Artist Statement
Pleasure Seeker is a mixed-media self-portrait. In the piece, the artist seeks out pleasure in order to soothe her wounds, yet by doing so to excess, creates new wounds. Here, the soothing takes multiple forms: “Write or die,” the artist’s motto, is her way to process traumatic events. But also perhaps less healthy methods are also used like the pleasure found through substances, which tear the figure apart and, in some ways, hold it together. What soothes also tears, and what tears also soothes in a cycle that the artist–as a still image–is suspended within. The gold paint and textured paper are seductive but dangerous, like a balm that possibly also eats away at the figure. The mixed media collage points to the disharmonious combination of substances with the body; they do not readily combine.
Bio and Websites
Elizabeth Salaam is a San Diego-based writer, storyteller, and artist. Salaam’s work takes the form of personal narratives, installation, performance, and sculpture, all of which are emotionally honest and rich with observations of herself and the world around her. Through these multiple media, she often uses writing to tackle issues from her own experience which encompasses all of the things: cultural isolation, sexual abuse, addiction, and racism. This year, she presented her first solo exhibition "Write or Die" at You Belong Here in September, which was featured on KPBS.org and on the Uninterrupted and Beautiful radio show. She also participated in the 2020 TEDx Conference at University of California San Diego as a featured speaker, and worked as an artist-in-residence at Island Farm Press.
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