menu
Artist Statement
My unique cultural background as a Kenyan-Indian-Canadian provides me with a distinct perspective, one that is perpetually in transition. It cannot avoid complications and this compels aspects of my artistic practice, where I question my own authenticity, while articulating issues that debate a cultural and political agenda. In my work I explore the thesis that identity is not static but enacted and that this challenges accepted ways of thinking about what it is to have an authentic identity. An example of this is my experience of losing the possession of Swahili, a language I grew up speaking in Kenya, but after migrating to Canada and not using the language I lost this tongue. This reinforces the idea for me that identity is in a constant state of flux. These ideas are further explored through the dilemmas and codes that language creates through ethnicity and sub-cultures. I explore how language becomes codified, where it creates barriers that both foreclose and allow for understanding within specific groups and communities. In particular, I am investigating how language can be altered and sometimes even forgotten through the process of migration. Migration defines identity by highlighting transformation, the activity of becoming someone else through processes of loss and gain, forgetfulness and remembrance. My work also highlights how lexicon becomes altered in slang and Pigeon English, where language itself is transformed, but still carries the related meaning. In my newest work I look at how movement techniques are recalled in the body via muscle memory and I exploring this phenomenon through cultural dance, ballet and the language that prescribes directions for dancers to move. I am looking at movement thorough the laboring body and queering as it relates to physicality and gender. These investigations have yielded several important and complex questions that guide my work, most notably: who am I?