The multimedia installation Thirty-Six presented in this book includes photographic images, videos and sculptures. All of the works examine the nature of the urban dwelling, specifically Araya's residence at 36 Faillon Street East in Montreal. One of the video works presents a compilation of eight short tapes that chronicle journeys to and from Montreal. While the first two, Walking Around and Tahoka, were filmed in Texas in 1998 and 1999, just before the artist moved to Montreal, the other six are all about home, immigration and displacement.
The two photographic series, Domestic Exiles, 2004 and Paroxysm, 2006 displace the body by intervening in curious ways with everyday objects in a domestic space. These images question a dichotomy between domestic violence and a sense of security. Their aesthetic claim in an artistic context raises questions about the in-situ versus the domestic.
Kinga Araya
Kinga Araya is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher. She lives and works in Montreal and Berlin. In her artistic practice, she explores the phenomenon of movement and communication in relation to the uncertainty of the contemporary human condition. In her critical research she examines the phenomenon of walking, immigration and exile as represented in contemporary performance. Her critical work has been published in the journals esse and Parachute. Araya has presented her work and performances and lectured in several cultural and academic venues in Australia, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Lebanon, Poland, Spain, the United States and the former Yugoslavia. Solo exhibitions include Hybris IV at the Zacheta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw (2003); Prosthetic Self presented at Oboro in Montreal (doctoral thesis exhibition, 2004); and Paroxysme at the Maison de la culture de Gatineau (2006). In 2007, Araya participated in two group exhibitions at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
