Steven Baboun
Steven Baboun is an artist based in New York City, USA
Steven Babounis one of ArtConnect’s Artists to Watch '22
Baboun's practice consists of using fabrics and textiles from their native homelands of Syria and Haiti to create surrealist images of Haitians and Syrians in their community. They use their environment and subjects in their community to analyze their identity as a queer Haitian-Syrian. Through the lens of family history and memory; immigration; personal and family happenings; landscape; language and community, they are dissecting their hybrid identity, an identity that is in-between, ever-evolving and fluid. They are not Haitian enough. They are not Syrian enough. As a queer Haitian-Syrian, they have always felt cultural and sexually alienated within their homelands. This sense of alienation has fueled their passion to become this sort of artistic sociologist, collaborating and creating with three main marginalized communities in Haiti: the Haitian queer community, the Haitian-Syrian community in Haiti and Syria, and religious minority communities such as Haitian Vodou and Islam.
Giulia Menegale
Curator
“Steven Baboun engages with key concerns of contemporaneity from a first-person perspective. By playing with textile insertions, their photographies reconfigure the gender and cultural identities of the subjects portrayed in manners that surpass personal recollection, and open up to collective new interpretations.”
ArtConnect asked the winning artists to share with us a glimpse into their creative life to get a sense of their personal inspiration and artistic process.
How did you get started as an artist?
I got started as a photographer when I received my first camera at 15.
How would you describe your artistic approach?
I would describe my artistic approach as touching on hysteria, instinctual, dancing between playing and amplifying my community. My approach is a childlike curiosity, where learning and transforming are crucial factors in my art making.
Steven’s studio
And how about what inspires you?
I'm inspired by my country of Haiti, its history and culture. I am inspired by deep vulnerability and the deeper provocative nature of the human emotion and existence. I am inspired the the fragility of time and life.
What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced as an artist?
To keep believing in my storytelling and what I want to say. As an artist, it's hard to keep making, feeling, and confronting. But I have to remind myself that the world needs us artists to imagine and reimagine a just and kind society, to find alternative ways of solving problems, and to give people hope through the work.
Steven working on a project
Describe a typical day in the studio/wherever you make your work.
My studio is based in Brooklyn. Between answering emails, working on my residency, making work, and teaching, my days are quite a mix of different things. I use my studio to create my installations, however I am a site-specific artist and thrive off creating outside a studio.
Is there a medium, a process, or a technique that you haven't used in your work yet but would like to try out?
I would love to dive into sound and special effects!
Keng
Sen Ong
Curator
“An intriguing artist who is at the border of so many crossings. i find the work promising and filled with potentialities. The fluidity and the tactility in the work is impressive. Steven transforms the "not being enough" into some kind of power which intimately suggests a mysterious hybridity.”
What are you currently working on? Or an upcoming project you want to mention?
I am currently starting my residency in Brooklyn through Haiti Cultural Exchange and just wrapped up stage production for DJ and producer Michael Brun's BAYO 2022 Tour.
How does it feel to be selected as an ArtConnect Artist to Watch?
It's an immense honor that I can present to the world Haitian storytelling and narratives. I'm so humbled that my community's stories can resonate with folks who might not be from Haiti. Thank you for giving my work a chance!
Stpehanie Fenner
Curator
"Steven Badoun depicts with his photographs characters which show a multilayered identity referring to classical iconographic language clashing with contemporary culture."
Anything else you want to add?
Follow my creative studio at @studio_baboun and studiobaboun.com
See more of Steven’s work
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