Artist Statement

Viva Egoyan-Rokeby is an interdisciplinary artist born and raised in Tkaronto (“Toronto”) and currently situated in Tio’tia:ke (“Montreal”). Currently studying at Concordia University, they work in a number of mediums including screen print, drawing, video and installation. Viva is interested in the construction, distribution, deconstruction and reconstruction of images and symbols and how this relates to memory, identity, displacement and contemporary digital culture. In their work, reappropriated images become fragments and traces to be explored through a ritualized process of repetition and abstraction. Unconventional pigments such as soot, pomegranate juice and rust take on an alchemical property. In forcing images to “fail” at communicating their original intent, through choices in process and materials, these images become relics of sorts, fluctuating between legibility and illegibility.