Catalina Aranguren
My work is a dialogue about the modern world and our place in it. Light is the foundation and sets the tone of the conversation. My work explores relationships between the learned and the subconscious. Because of the diversity of cultures in which I grew up, and perhaps in spite of them, my work explores the relationship between perception and cognition. Oftentimes in my work I capture an instant, which forces the viewer to come closer to explore for more detail, or to take a step back to understand the full picture. I search to document mundane life and objects and give them a scholarly pedestal to perch on.
I was born in Bogotá, Colombia. At the age of 5 my parents moved and I was raised in Caracas, Venezuela. I studied K – 12th at the International School there. Growing up, my friends were from everywhere in the world; religion, race, culture and language were not things I was aware of as differences …it wasn’t who they were innately, it was merely a part of where they came from.
My childhood was a constant wavering between languages, cultures, and third and first worlds, on a daily basis. At home, we would sit around the dining table and I would speak Spanish with my parents, turn, and speak in English to my sister.
I moved to Chicago to study photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and received my BFA. Before I graduated, I did a semester in Europe at the Spéos Photographic Institute in Paris, France.
My husband and I are currently raising three bilingual, bicultural, biracial and bustling boys in New Jersey.
http://www.argia.photos/
Instagram: caranguren