Karen ROdrigues Enokibara
Karen Rodrigues Enokibara was born in Tocantins Brazil, from a Portuguese-Indigenous mother and a Japanese father. She has lived in 3 different regions of Brazil and eventually moved to Ireland where she now resides. This colourfully diverse background has inherently seeped into her art practice, where she attempts to articulate past experiences and current influences.
She is currently building a body of work that reflects on nostalgia and memories making use of symbolism and metaphors to dissect and evaluate the longing for roots and a well-defined familial context through carefully crafted oil paintings, sculptural pieces and moving image. Her practice is informed by reflective journaling as well as writings on philosophy, psychology and poetry.
In Sterquiliniis Invenitur is the beginning of a body of work that stemmed from anecdotal genealogy, academic writings on nostalgia and hauntology subsequent to emigration, and personal introspections. Through it, the artist attempts to acquire the knowledge and vocabulary to scrupulously articulate stories and sentiments regarding cultural identity. However, masticated into visual works that are classically palatable and easy on the eyes, akin to the carefully crafted masks one might wear for the sake of social acceptance, however still honouring the small cracks of the inherited ghosts that have influenced the creation of that shroud to begin with.