Iffah Qistina (b. 1997, Singapore) is an emerging visual artist based in Singapore. She first studied traditional art practices in junior college, then further progressed to practicing digital art at Nanyang Technological University, School of Arts, Design, and Media (ADM), where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Design Art (Honours) in 2021.
Having the real-world intertwined with surrealism, Qistina's work depicts a fantasy-like scene that revolves around a recurring theme of spirituality, aiming to create an emotional impact. Her work, titled 'MORTALS', has been exhibited in Gulbenkian Media Façade in the UK as part of a cross-continental urban media film exhibition.
Within the space of a rectangular frame, I birthed ‘Repose’ to portray the moment where life gradually meets death. Exploring the relationship between humans and the spiritual realm, death meets us here at the end, where our bodies become vessels resting on earth's ground. In that profound moment, I build a world that feels like a dream yet riddled with reality. By carefully placing the glowing flowers with their little remnants floating around the body, it signifies that perhaps death is not one to be frightened of, but to be embraced, as one could finally be in proper solitude.
‘Reborn’ is presumably the aftermath of ‘Repose’. Exploring life after death, death here could be interpreted in numerous ways. When facing hardships, often it forces a part of us to metaphorically die. We undergo “metamorphosis”, eventually growing anew. Hence, parallel to this piece. In a levitating pose, the human hibernates in an ice cube of shimmering gold as a reminder that in this period of hibernation, mourning a part of us that died, something greater is in formation. The loss of who you once were could lead to something far more magnificent. And that is, a new version of you.
