Artist Statement | Mediha Sandhu

There is a rich internal logic to the nature of abuse, stress, punishment, self harm, and depression. My pieces aspire to address those issues. Stress changes a person on the cellular level. Traumatic events, such as sexual abuse, mutates an individual to become more prone to illness, have a stronger reaction to stress, and affects the whole body physically as well as psychologically. Intangible stressors are as damaging, if not more, than physical stressors. Over time, this behavior becomes methodical, subconscious, sometimes even necessary.

My work uses video and elements of photography in examining the self. The outward portrayal versus the inner turmoil which we convince ourselves to suppress for society. I try to find my voice, intermingling photography, digital retouching, video, and digital illustration, This video piece is a collage of experimentations and studies that try to give a glimpse of the mental “static” or noise one constantly has to deal with in such a complex stressed life.