Leah Rofaila

My work focuses on the consumption of stimuli and media that surrounds me and how it manifests as simple pleasures within my art. I seek to explain the often pushed aside idea of the inherent joys of identity and how that can be expressed through homage. I enjoy working with the unremarkable imagery of the everyday and how it can become something remarkable once it is received by the viewer. There is connection between a simple line drawing and the nostalgic part of the mind that creates an invocation of memory.

Despite my work being created as a means of connection with an audience, there is also something deeply personal about it. Although I don’t show my face or appearance within my practice, everything seen is a culmination of my thoughts, my likes, the parts of life I miss and my obsessions. In a certain way, it is a self portrait, made up of external factors. At the point of creation, a political and ideological perspective is not considered. Yet, inevitably, a subconscious ideology is formed as it is such a subjective way of making work; putting down ideas that are at the forefront of my mind.

My practice is mainly paper based, a material which is not considered particularly three dimensional. Yet, when it is compiled there is a physicality in my work through the act of turning a page. As well as this, I commonly combine moving image with paper as they create an interesting and comfortable dialogue. Whilst I believe my physical work and my moving image work promote the joy of the simplicity of life in different ways, there is often a liminality between them, raising the possibility of animating static work.