Artist Statement
My practice concerns itself with cultural versus ethnic heritage and how one may parade as being an authentic identity while the other an identity to be reviled or to be carelessly idealized.
It is also about Identity and appropriation as both an uncontrollable force and a choice that we steer towards. Through the use of symbolic imagery, the reassembly of found objects and reinventing them through various crafts my work attempts to recognize that, as a white settler, I have inherited yet I still go back to taking.
The current trajectory of my practice now is to confront the lineage I choose to disown instead of seeking comfort in the arms of cultures that historically have suffered at the hands of my ancestors.
I seek to reconcile and acknowledge through my artistic practice that I am an expression of history and as such I must break the generational patterns in the personal, the spiritual and the social sphere.
Biography
Tatjana Reithofer is a multidisciplinary artist based in Oakville, Ontario.
Her work primarily entails performance, installation, found objects and a wide array of crafts.
She deals with topics such as cultural and ethnic heritage, generational patterns, and tensions between appropriation and appreciation.
Tatjana has a Bachelor's Degree from OCAD U's Sculpture & Installation Program and she currently has work held in private collections in Puebla, Mexico and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Special thanks to Ontario Arts Council for their gracious support of my work
