Artist, writer and director Sarah Bahbah makes art that deeply connects with her audience.
RENÉE BATCHELOR: Your images are like stories and vignettes captured in stills. At times they feel like very private thoughts and intimate moments that we, the audience are almost voyeuristically looking in on. When did you first start creating your art in its current form?
SARAH BAHBAH: I draw my inspiration from my own experiences. I spend a lot of time reflecting, and my work is based off my inner dialogue during these times of reflection. I sort of store all these emotions until I am ready to handle them, and then it hits me like a wave. I will sit for hours and days, just conceptualising and writing. One line after the other, I peak and release all the energy that I have been nursing.
The difficult process is working through my experiences, and really allowing myself to process the pain. But each time, I learn more about the power that comes with taking control of the things that have happened to you. I truly believe in my art and my work, and the reception is always so warming and uplifting. Because of this, the more I honestly open up, the more I grow in confidence to live this way every day.
RB: Your images have a very distinctive mood and style, in terms of the staging, costumes, props, and lighting. How did you go about developing your style and do you work with a particular team?
SB: It has taken me 10 years of practice to develop my signature style. My expression is born from a deeply personal reflection and meditation of my experiences. Alongside this, I use a lot of technical aspects to manifest the colours and feelings that I have realised during my process of reflection. This has made my style distinctly my own, even if I were to directly show someone my process, my style would be impossible to imitate.
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