Polka Polka Collage

BIO Mona Sultan was raised in Damascus, Syria, she studied graphic design in Beirut and currently lives in the UK. Mona has worked in the film and fashion industries and founded an eponymous fashion accessory line between 2012 and 2019. Since 2020, Sultan has been solely focusing on her collage practice and pursuing the exhibition of her work while also collaborating with local brands on select projects. Sultan’s deep interest in psychology informs the way she approaches her work. Through archetypical autobiography, Sultan explores identity, interweaving memory, emotions and trauma into her work. While her approach to collage often draws on structures and design elements found in Dadaism and Surrealism, her work has become an exploration of her own emotional journey with a prominently present theme: absence. ARTIST STATEMENT Through an intimate examination of my own mind, my practice has become a manifestation of my emotional identity. Autobiographical and intuitive in its nature, my work relies on symbolism as a means of expression. I address themes of absence through the predominance of negative space in my work. The act of removal is crucial to my process; slicing and cutting are abrupt introducing disruption and displacement to space and time. My practice oscillates between autobiographical explorations of my own identity and engaging with a wider audience with an aim to move and empower. I am interested in how closely connected emotions, memory and trauma are to the senses and I pay close attention to this trilogy cycle to inform my work.