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tahsine creates art that challenges the viewer to see themselves, as well as our shared humanity.
Looped in by Mary Young
adapted from a conversation:
My name is tahsine. In Arabic it means ‘to enhance’ and that’s really interesting because that’s exactly what I am and what I’m doing.
I’m an artist which is a really nice big umbrella that allows me to create whatever I want, when I want, what I’m feeling, that’s just my means of expression and what it is that I’m putting out into the world.
What I’ve realized most recently is that I’m an iterative artist. I make iterations. I will play with something for a really long time, and conceptually explore that theme and something might look the same and only slight iterations might happen. And sometimes bigger iterations might happen. And that’s how I like to live my life in that we’re constantly evolving, as beings, as humans with our time here.
There’s a constant chiseling of ourselves that I think we’re meant to do while we’re here. And so I’m noticing now that my work is doing that too.
It’s not visual things that are swimming around for me, it’s conceptual things that are swimming around. So I’m thinking about all the things.
Purposefully I’ve used aesthetic and beauty as a means of communication, because we all are attuned to beauty in a way, whatever form and shape that might take, that’s what pulls you in initially. I want you to go deeper because there are definitely more things to consider when looking at it.
There’s a mood to my work. It’s not joyful, overtly. There is joy there because joy is very much a part of my life and I think every human’s life should incorporate seeking that out. I think that’s such an important part. But it’s not overt. I’m trying to talk about things that are a little harder to hear, more challenging. I’m talking about things that hurt. There’s a lot of pain.
None of the work has my face, but it’s a self-portrait of myself, for you, for everyone, because you’re able to see yourself in it. It is really reflective work in that way. It’s meant to bring out some sort of recognition of yourself….seeing yourself in it.
People have said to me, I’m really affected by your work. I don’t know what it’s doing to me, or why it’s doing that to me, I can’t really say, but it’s doing something. And I’m like, there. That’s what we need. Just to stir. A little bit of fire, something, even if it’s small shifts. It could be the smallest shift, but that’s an iteration. We’re trying to push a needle from one place, where it is, to another place, because obviously it’s evident that we have some changes that need to happen.
A life that’s considered, that iterates, that’s meaningful, and beautiful.
I think I think poetically. Do I call myself a poet? People will say it, yes you are. It’s hard, even for me to have owned that title of artist. I really shied away from that for a really long time.
I think words have a lot of power. I remember hearing words when I was young that attached to me and stuck to me which was not really ideal because those weren’t words that I wanted to be describers of me. I just know that they have such a powerful impact and effect. I love the written word. I think it’s phenomenal what can happen when you string together letters to create these sounds that can have that kind of power, and that don’t take up so much space. They can just float conceptually in your mind. They’re words. I think communication is such an important part of life, and growth and words are part of how we communicate. So words are very much part of the way I make my artwork.
I want it to be an empathy expander. What are we here to do - to expand our empathy so that we have more and more things and more people and experiences beyond our own situation. That’s how we can be more of a loving and caring and tending and doting and plugged in society, whereas right now maybe we don’t care and we don’t have empathy and we don’t know enough. So this is the point…to maybe have it ignite some desire to care more.
I really think having my children. They helped me understand my purpose and really kick-started my curiosity to understand the point of it all. It’s not really an achievement, they were a gift bestowed to me. I would say a great achievement is recognizing that I’m in a constant evolution and growth. We evolve, we grow, we take our time, we learn, we’re open, we expand and we can continue to expand. That awareness is an achievement that’s not complete but I’m very thankful and in deep gratitude for it, because it allows me to live the way that I live. I like it.
I think I’m most passionate about love. The idea, and what it can do, and learning more about other ways of thinking about love versus the way we were taught about love. For us to all feel it and receive it, and heal from it and grow from it. bell hooks who recently passed, was a phenomenal writer and a writer on love. Her definition of love transformed the way I think… that love is this idea of inciting, encouraging and igniting spiritual growth in another person. Imagine if we could all do that for one another, not just roses and flowers, and chocolate candy, it’s not that. When I read ‘All about Love’ I felt really heard and seen. It’s very powerful.
I think right now maybe it’s not who I wanna work with but what I wanna work with… large elemental forms, like rock and crystal, mirror, so I’m imagining things sculpturally. I’m not there yet, but it’s going to go there.
It would be an afternoon entangled with my kids, reading, in the sun.
It has to be me. We have a rocky relationship, but that has to be my first and foremost, my base. I have a very close relationship with my Creator which extends to me, which then allows me to understand love for my children. So it all integrates and correlates together. I can’t go anywhere and be anything worth any while if I don’t love myself. It’s a new way of thinking but we really do have to recognize and understand it. Not in a selfish way. I love me, so that I can give me. If I don’t tend to me and care for me then I can’t give of me. If you don’t get to the place where it’s beyond yourself, then you’re not transformed enough. It has to go beyond, to the collective, but it starts here.
Hima’s words just hit. She has a wonderful way of weaving letters together to explore her inner world in relation to her experience in the outer and the resonance factor is way high. The thinking she lends to her performance work is also noteworthy.
Hima’s words just hit. She has a wonderful way of weaving letters together to explore her inner world in relation to her experience in the outer and the resonance factor is way high. The thinking she lends to her performance work is also noteworthy.
Dahae is a magical being. The way she has rooted into her knowings and faith is inspiring for any artist. She is forging her own way that is truly representational of her and in doing so gives us all an example to root into our own knowings and intuition.
Dahae is a magical being. The way she has rooted into her knowings and faith is inspiring for any artist. She is forging her own way that is truly representational of her and in doing so gives us all an example to root into our own knowings and intuition.
Tiff is an integrative artist x wellness practitioner, learner, guide and offerer of wisdom and life experience. She lives experimentally, thoughtfully and expansively. She is a human who leads with her heart and it’s an honour to be in her orbit, in her care.
Tiff is an integrative artist x wellness practitioner, learner, guide and offerer of wisdom and life experience. She lives experimentally, thoughtfully and expansively. She is a human who leads with her heart and it’s an honour to be in her orbit, in her care.
Tamara is a soulful, free spirited muse who works daily with the elements of earth, water and fire to make beautiful forms and containers. She was a guide to me in my ceramics journey and she is a loving holder of space for women artists.
Tamara is a soulful, free spirited muse who works daily with the elements of earth, water and fire to make beautiful forms and containers. She was a guide to me in my ceramics journey and she is a loving holder of space for women artists.