Adem Aquila
Bachelor of Fine Arts (Drawing & Printmaking)
Contains course language.
My film essay, Sufferer, investigates the representation of suffering and pain in art. The work explores my own cognitive dissonance regarding the catharsis audiences may experience through empathising with such depictions and the often-simultaneous harm that can occur when personal anguish becomes romanticised, profitable or corrupted.
By removing a focus on structure, my contemplative approach seeks to evoke an interpretive response, reflecting the dilemma in encouraging artists to freely express pain through their work for therapeutic purposes; and the consequences in amplifying the appeal of suffering and pain in artists as valuable.
The film presents segmented explorations of this through a wide range of formats which shift between distinct mediums, styles, and attitudes.