Artist Introduction

Echoes of Identity originates from the bringing together of fragments of three concepts that I researched in the past. The concepts are about the notion of deaths as an exit and entrance to something new, the passages of life that identify who we are on the eyes of others that we enter or exit and how human beings associate labelling with what they see with naked eye, with reference to African cultures. I wanted to weave these concepts by using the anthropology of liminality and yet playing with the phrase of “being-in-a-closet” to push the narrative of the work forward.  

In the residency process the work took its own shape and direction. The process has resulted into interrogative methods used that are personal and constant. Many ideas started to make more sense for the short film and some had to be put aside due to the duration of the short film. What I also discovered is that a solo creation process reflects the identity of where you at in life as a creator. I became much aware that I am constantly banging the same wall of “who am I in the cultural and religious context of Africa? Who am I in the gaze of the society of Africa that sleeps on the liminality of pigmentation? How does the skin I am in allow mobility for me to choose who I want to be?” 

From all this process a short film was born and Echoes of Identity was its name. Firmly rooted in poetic movement storytelling. This project has re-emphasized the use of my body as a catalyst in negotiating dialogue and sending narratives across. This work is an infused work echoing identical quest and the passages of life that we find ourselves entering or exiting.  

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