Placements
Issues of cultural identity, memory and displacement are the conceptual launching points for my creative work. I would like to propose a multi-channel video installation exploring the multiple identities of Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual or Transgendered people who are also displaced from their original country of birth. This work will present multiple identities and the many questions these individuals often face.
My interest in this topic stems from having a close friend who deals with these issues. She is an orphan from India, was adopted into a white, American family, grew up in a small town where she was a minority, not only by the color of her skin, but also by her sexual orientation. I made a multi-channel video called Memories of Cardamom, where she expresses her many questions and multiple identities in four separate video portraits, each with a separate dialogue. In each portrait, she discusses a different issue, wearing different clothing, which fits the dialogue. Between east and west, male and female, each portrait embodies identities of place and gender (for more details on this work, please scroll down).
I would like to take this project further by working with at least three more individuals that deal with a similar identity crisis. Each individual will represent a unique perspective. For example, in addition to my friend’s perspective as a lesbian, I would like to include Gay and Trans-gendered people, as well as multiple ages. Each individual will tell personal stories, and similar to Memories of Cardamom, I will edit them into multiple portraits, reflecting multiple identities. For the exhibition, I will create a four-channel video and sound installation, which will cover four walls. The dialogue between each individual will be staggered and sometimes overlapping. The confusion this creates will be intentional, reflecting the overwhelming emotions and questions these minorities face everyday. The talking portraits will periodically swap places around the room and each individual will choose how many identities they relate to or call to question. The channels will be looping and the viewer will feel as if they have entered into an ongoing and complex dialogue between the participants. Through these narratives, I aim to convey the beauty and struggle of difference and the tension inherent in living between multiple cultures and identities—East and West, heterosexual and homosexual, traditional and contemporary—while never feeling completely part of either.
Some Preliminary Sketches:
More about Memories of Cardamom:
This is a two channel video installation that inspired my ideas for “Placements.” As I previously discussed, this project is inspired by a close friend’s stories and questions as she finds herself between multiple cultural identities dealing with sexuality and place. My friend was found as a baby in a Cardamom spice field in India. At the age of three, an American family adopted her from an orphanage in Kerela. Raised in a small town in Wisconsin, she was a minority through not only by color, but also by sexual orientation. There, she was more than just an outsider: she often felt like a stranger to herself. She now lives in Colorado, dreams of India, and hopes to one day find or create a place of her own. As her story conveys, such a place must accommodate numerous and sometimes contradictory identities and demonstrate a tolerance for complexity that is rarely found. Although this is one woman’s story, it cannot help but resonate with other people who experience feelings of displacement or the painful binary of gratitude and
longing.
Images from Gallery:
Budget:
Graphic Design (flyers, catalogue, website, press packets): $500 (In House)
Printing (flyers, mailers, catalogue, press packets): $600 (In Kind Donations)
Mailers (price for post): $200 (In Kind Donations)
Photography/Documentation: $500 (In House)
Equipment Maintenance: (possible bulb replacements) $2,000 (In Kind Donations)
Equipment Rental: (4 projectors for one month) $3,600 (In Kind Donations)
Reception: $600
Transportation: (airfare and transport around city) $400
Meals/Lodging: (install, reception, artist talk and/or workshop – estimate 5 days) $700
Grants/Donations: 7,400
Additional Costs: 1,700
Total: 9,100
