About My Practice

As a visual artist, I navigate between the construction and witnessing of images. I have studied and worked in the field of Information Science that extended into photography, through creating and preserving my own stories.

My life has been characterized by abandonment and neglect, leading to my challenges. This abuse with a history of a post-apartheid society and domestic instabilities has influenced my journey of womanhood, deviating from the norms and beliefs I was cultured into. I am the consequence of the environment I didn’t choose. My work is an introspective reflection of social issues, rooted in my identity as an Afrikaans woman.

The subtle violence, sensitivity, absurdity, the animals, and all the symbolism, aimed towards a self-reflection of my inner landscape.

I’m inspired by the present and my hypersensitivity to the world around me. Always comparing my exclusion of family and belonging, I try to navigate the meaning of home against a blueprint of my past and layer narratives with archival material, fabrics, and processes. I mostly choose monochromatic as it aesthetically feels like a record between my reality and abstraction.

Nadia Ettwein is part of »Guest Room: Daniel Boetker-Smith & Tanvi Mishra«.

Check out her Artist Feature “Houseplant”.