Salma Vir

As an interdisciplinary and intermodal artist, there are various avenues and modalities through which I can express my core desires as a creator. My work is always a celebration of synthesis as well as rebirth and redemption. As a Black American, my work aims to reclaim what is sacred for Black American culture – one of the most appropriated and exported cultures of our time. And as a 2nd generation East Indian, I am constantly faced with the remnants of colonialism and all the ways we (as South Asians) cling to and reject its omnipresence. My visual two-dimensional work often takes the form of abstract archetypal portraiture, where vibrant colors, grey scale, graffiti, East Indian motifs, mythology, and Black American iconography form gracious and vivacious intersections. In addition to visual artist, I am also a dancer, clinical art therapist, designer and aspiring tattoo artist. My most recent work has centered around the fusion of tattooing and body markings, clinical art therapy, biomimicry, and recreating visual patterns in nature - ecofractals. How can nature-inspired art forms truly heal wounded bodies - both physically and spiritually? Originally formed in 2015, Meridian Ink was born from my desire to use art, in the form of ritual tattooing, to release trauma stored in the body. My work, as an intermodal practice, is always a therapeutic medium. All my creative expressions intersect to encourage personal and intergenerational change. Creation and healing are never separate.