Tessia Bekelja

Tessia Bekelja
Troy, New York, USA

STATEMENT

Tessia’s work is reflective of her preoccupation with increased screen time, a lack of physical connection to the outside world, abuse of power, and unfamiliar forces altering our bodies. She sources collage materials from found vintage photographs, medical guidebooks, her own photographs, history books, and paper that she hand-marbles. She uses a medical scalpel to cut the thinnest and smallest components, and constructs all of her work by hand in analog fashion. Tessia views collage as a pathway to strengthen one’s intuition and ability to give order to fragmented, seemingly unconnected images.

BIO

Tessia Bekelja is a collage artist and zine maker from Troy, New York. Her work communicates an unease about the hidden forces that surround us, and her struggle to discern whether these energies are benevolent or malevolent. Influenced by dystopias in film and literature, medical imaging, and mutation, her collages suggest an ambiguity about whether the figure’s bodily autonomy is under threat.

Tessia exhibited her work in the group show “The Other Virus” at the 344 Second St. Visual Works Gallery in Troy, New York, and also in a solo show called “Clock Bodies” at the Smallbany Gallery in Albany, New York. She will display a collection in another group show at Troy’s Second Street Studios in July 2022. Her work has been published by Photo Trouvée Magazine and Hyper Saturation, as well as the zines Women of Noise and Slutcake.

ARTIST CONTACT

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tessiabekelja.com
INSTAGRAM

IMAGES