adversities

The distance between doors

7/12

The 7th work of this series is about the difficulty to go from one place to the other, even after you already relocated. How the paths may seem easy, but nothing is really easy when you feel vulnerable and weakened. The doors are in the same room, but the simple way from one to the other can make you feel afraid and represent dangers that your mind knows way too well to ignore. Mental health play a key role in it. The decision to start a new life is filled with fears and insecurities. And it takes a lot of courage not only to dare to leave but to arrive and deliberately choose the best possible path for yourself. Bringing in the good memories and allowing new friends into your life may help to keep the ghosts of the past at a safe distance. It is not easy to decide and choose to be happy, leaving behind all the rubble, wounds and bruises, but it is necessary, despite the impossibilities. And it’s worth it, despite the herculean efforts. I am grateful to the friends who helped me build new memories, easing my fears and creating safer shelters, with wider and more beautiful windows and views.

Luciana Mariano (Series: Finding home)

Original artworks available at MakslaXO Galley, in Riga, Latvia.

The long corridors of bureaucracy

6/12

The 6th painting of this series is called “The corridors of bureaucracy”. This work is about the bureaucracy of things when you are already facing processes of change. Besides the material and emotional aspects of moving and adapting, immigration processes pile up a complicated barrier of rules, laws and papers, written in uncomprehensible and inaccessible words that require precision, knowledge, tranquility and patience, often not available in troublesome times. Demands energy and builds up the tension, amplifying the difficulties, doubts and unsecurities. The bureaucratic aspects of immigration are usually not the most difficult but is certainly one of the most stressful. It treats you as a standardised object to be in accordance with the demanded rules. It reduces humans to check lists of compliances. Bureaucratic environments are intimidating, sterile, not welcoming. Long corridors with unfamiliar faces, endless demands and unpredictable resolutions. You must walk it through if you want to overcome it. But at the end,  there are no certainties nor guarantees for actually making it. You can´t really avoid it, it is a test for resilience. Uncomfortable and unavoidable growing pains, found on every little corner of the long winding road we call life.

Utopia: a planet without borders, so people could follow their bliss and find their place in the world instead of struggling for acceptance.

Luciana Mariano

P.S.: All the works from this series can be seen and acquired at Gallery MākslaXO in Riga, Latvia.

Finding Balance

5/12

The 5th work of the immigration series is  called “Finding balance”. Major life changes provoque unbalance.  Immigrating requires a change of mind-set, search and understanding of the new reality. The new structure may seem confusing and the ways to function in society may need adjustments. Language, culture, clima, everything will challenge your adaptability. The door is half open and you never know what it may hold behind it. The scene is simple; door, table, different chairs where perhaps one can sit for a while and find some guidance or figure out the silence. On the walls 2 paintings: the waters look straight while the firm ground looks unbalanced. Small details and overwhelming feelings. All stages of a major change or immigration is a vast and uncomfortable ecossistem of feelings. Can you relate?