White Gaze
A project about transracial adoption & displacement.
Lyrics
I was found in a desert market place.
Rough hands all over my body, white gaze.
Carried over many seas,
bound to Western greed.
Owned like a dog on a too tight leash,
erased to fulfill your needs.
Where’s the lie in living under a roof,
clothes, education and food?
Songs of loving families,
horses and prairies.
If only I would comply, you said
Now I’m suck dried tied to my bed
Treated as china doll or criminal,
raging when I don’t smile to your catcall.
RELEASE DATE – 26 JUNE 2021 | © 2021 YANA POPPE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
About
Artist / Writer / Musician
/
Biography
Born in Jakarta in 1983 and displaced to the Netherlands, Yana's recent works explore her experience of being a transracial transnational adoptee. Under her original name 'Yana Srikandi' she uses her voice and music to express growing up in a white environment.
She holds a Bachelor in Fine Arts and is a figurative painter inspired by the urban environment. Yana's paintings have been sold in the Netherlands, Japan and Hong Kong. After having studied Nihonga painting in 2011, she went back several times to, among others, participate in artist in residences. Regarding the pandemic, her participation in the artist in residence program in Shanghai, China has been postponed.
She holds a Bachelor in Fine Arts and is a figurative painter inspired by the urban environment. Yana's paintings have been sold in the Netherlands, Japan and Hong Kong. After having studied Nihonga painting in 2011, she went back several times to, among others, participate in artist in residences. Regarding the pandemic, her participation in the artist in residence program in Shanghai, China has been postponed.
Statement
The main theme in my artwork is the urban landscape. By depicting everyday features such as Japanese vending machines and overhead power-lines, I aim to highlight the impact and influence of manmade objects in the natural environment.
At the same time, I challenge the notion of esthetics, by almost "beautifying" these objects that are often deemed mere functional, or even "ugly".
This results in an interplay between perceived spatiality and my view of the carrier as purely a two-dimensional plane. Here the illusion of depth clashes with the almost graphical twodimensionality caused by the overlapping and composition of the many various lines and forms of the mandmade objects.
In recent years my focus has shifted from man-made objects in the urban landscape to the meaning of space in the urban landscape. I'm particularly interested in places where different meanings overlap and co-exist. Due to this I've also begun to start painting nature, seeing it as an inseparable part of how man designs - as well as perceives - the urban landscape.
Through the use of vivid coloured pigments I want to stress the aesthetic and playful, and at the same time the dissonance and the inconsistence.
