Above image: Amir Zaorin, HOME. Serigraph on a map. 2022.
Being a person - what does it mean ? And what does it mean to be a human being today?
These are some of the questions In From the Margins artist Amir Zainorin is trying to answer in his pursuit to integrate himself in a new environment.
Amir is a Malaysian artist living in Denmark. His artworks are related to the fact that he is dislocated from home, an immigrant longing for home, and still in the somewhat difficult process of being integrated into his new country.
He has been exploring the process of screenprinting at Fyns Grafiske Værksted / Funen Printmaking Studio in Odense. During his residency, Amir really joined in with the life of the studio and got along well with the members. Communication between people is very important for Amir. He held an Artist Talk for members and other invited guests, explaining his point of view and showing the prints that he did.
Commenting on this work, he said:
"I wish to explore the concept of home in relation to time and space - between both the physical and virtual world in recognizing what are the shared identity and sense of being connected.
The series "Contemporary Odes to the Daily Mundane" explores the question of home, the notion of belonging. It seeks to discover what it means to be a human, a husband, father and an artist in time of uncertainties dealing with displacement and migration, among other things.
I use maps, pages taken from an old atlas book as the background for the prints to suggest a symbolic depiction of a space. A map is a representation of certain boundaries of the earth in addition to presenting geographic features and political boundaries.
The use of silk screen in this series of work was a decision made with regards to how the work could be best represented where the mechanization- the use of machine, technology and human ideas, labor, creativity come together.It also comes from my wish to actually work and go through the whole process to make it."
Residency dates: 1st - 31st Aug 2022
Amir Zaorin was trained as an artist by pop artist Ahmad Azhari, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Afterwards he finished his studies in the USA. Amir has exhibited in Asia, the USA and Denmark. Recently he curated the exhibition Pera+Flora+Fauna, Port Perak, a Collateral event of the 59th Venice Biennale.
