Name: Ian Wojtowicz
Country Of Origin: Canada
Country Now Residing: Canada
Title:
I have lived in Nigeria, Hong Kong, Poland, Australia and Canada and with each displacement, my identity, sense of self and use of language shifts to accomodate the environment. I work actively to build bridges across cultural divides, and try to establish trust when there is fear of the unknown. I consider xenophobia to be one of the biggest problems of displacement, and one that exists for not only for original residents of an area but also within displaced people themselves. Having grown up in different countries has generated a need within me to keep moving, travelling and displacing myself until I find a home again. I am starting to realize that perhaps my home is a mobile one. My Jewish partner has inspired me to become more connected with the past, to help search for a better understanding of my family’s past as we look towards a hopeful future.
This is a photograph of a sculptural project that I have been working on for a year. It is a stump of wood given to me by my grandmother’s German neighbor, that I travelled across Canada with and carved in Paris in the fall of 2005, during the riots in the suburbs, which were arguably the result of the economic and social stresses of displacement. Living in a city surrounded by conflict greatly affected the outcome of the sculpture. It was an attempt at creating a harmonious form, but ended up taking an entirely different form as my surroundings have affected my approach towards the work.
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