SANAM KHATIBI

Sanam Khatibi’s work explores notions of animality and the primal impulses that we all share. At the core of her practice is a questioning of our relationship with power structures, and the duality of triumph and failure. The recurrent themes that feature in her work are chaos, destruction, excess, loss of control, domination, and submission. Khatibi is also interested in the thin line that exists between fear and desire, and how closely they are interrelated.Her subjects live on their impulses, set within alluring, exotic, and dangerous landscapes. Wildlife and animals are an integral part of her practice, and her figures are often depicted within the same plane as the flora and fauna. Power, violence, and sensuality mingle, intermix, and overlap with each other ambiguously, giving rise to multifaceted scenarios that juxtapose the animal and the human, past and present, cruelty and seduction.