Chella Giphart
Netherlands, 1993
chellagiphart@gmail.com
Thesis: Alienation, a disturbing of the self
Comfortably Alienated
Chella Giphart has been busy with the experience of alienation from one’s self, in which one cannot grab or recognize the self. It’s a feeling of losing control that is accompanied by overwhelming unease and leaves one unable to consciously limit impulses and behaviors. She asks herself, “What lies beyond our strength, and what do we have no control over?”
In her practice, she tries to seek out the causes of self-alienation and to discover how can one work with it. She processes her alienation into an imaginative image that she tries to express in a playful and humorous yet also uncanny way.
''For me, estrangement from the body is essential for continuing the processes of dismantling and researching.
I’m developing tools that allow me to create translations of my own alienation, translations that may turn out to be forms of psychological observation – to paint a better image, something helpful, enchanting, and cheerful, allowing me to embrace it more.''
