Foundation Project

Due to my curiosity of people's background, stories and experiences, I intend to work around it. Either collection of stories from people on street or stories from communities or any other direction I stumble upon.

RAPTURE: Documentaries of hip-hop artists and a look at their process and behind the scenes to their albums and songs. The first episode of LOGIC, he talks about his Grammy nominated song 1-800-273-8255 and how everyone's life is worthy and no matter how hard or dark things get, over time, it gets better. This gave me the idea to use my stories as a starting point for this project.

Having born in Qatar, to Indian parents, and English as my first language, the culture I follow, the activities, food, clothing and pretty much everything is ambiguous. I guess this is the case in any Third Culture Kid or what anyThird World Culture people feel like. With the lack of documented material around this area compared to any other culture or issue people come across, I am quite driven to take this as my approach for this module.

'Third Culture Kid: a term whose time has come – and gone?' : https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.uwe.ac.uk/docview/1944163826/fulltextPDF/EB865B97B59A41B7PQ/1?accountid=14785

Having read that article, I am not sure about the term anymore. I do that since the term have been coined, things have changed or developed in the world. Technology, has made knowledge of foreign countries accessible. This makes one aware about things happening and the culture of a country or place that's in the other end of the world.

Reading about artists like Halsey, Logic, Rupi Kaur, I've lost my definition of Third Culture Kid. It clearly intervenes with bi-racial people and some of the issues that they come across are very similar to one that a person who grew up in a different culture than to their parents. I don't think I am comfortable terming or naming this project third world culture of third culture kid anymore because I myself am confused about the term now. I believe I will call my project the 'un-named' from now and let the audience decide whether they can relate to my work despite their race or culture; whether TCK, bi-racial, or someone who loves a culture so much that they decide to follow it; which may be not practiced or followed around them. This is where technology is a bliss and lets you open your eyes to innumerable things. So I guess, the audience for my project is for the audience themselves to decide.

"Home is everywhere and nowhere"

Artists:

Theaster Gates

Judy Chicago

Aïda Muluneh: 'working on body painting, which is inspired by traditional body art from across Africa. Each work is a reflection of conscious and sub-conscious manifestations of time and space.' 2016

Zineb Sedira, A french artist who has a work up showing three different generations speaking different language; The artist's mother, The artist, and The artist's daughter, speaking Arabic, French and English respectively. This brought up questions about the complexity of language and communication. The piece was called 'Mother Tongue'. It reminded me of the upbringing of one, which is different from the parents and their ancestors/family which may result in a barrier between family.

Ted Talk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7kUQxbdnAM

Watching this video, it made me realize that some people struggle to prove themselves to others about where they are from because they do not either fit the norms of the people from the place or the 'stereotype'. In my opinion, no one should have to prove themselves of where they're from as one's identity is their business and if others cannot see or accept that, then they(society/public) should perhaps change their perception and be more accepting.

After brainstorming ideas and work to produce, I decided to answer the question 'where are you from?' as it always links up many things and is never a one word answer. I started thinking of ways to represent my cultural background or where I'm really from regardless birth certificates/passports or any other legal documentation. A few ways of representing this was:

Currency/language/music/designs/clothes/daily routine/skyline/buildings of the places/flags

Moving on from there, I decided to do a self portrait kinda photos to begin with. These are a few shots I ended up with.

I like the use of colours in her work. It is very bright and vibrant and definitely catches one's attention. At the same time, It's all plain and primary colours which I think makes you notice the details; even though there are just a few in each piece; like the shadows on the clothes, and the white dots; inspired from traditional body art across Africa as mentioned on her website.

I find the use of sky or white space fascinating. It balances out the bright colours used on the subject. It gives a sense of universality as well. I will be experimenting with this idea of universality in my project as I'd like the audience to be comfortable and accepted or even involved; an open end where they can relate to what they're going on/ or provoke thoughts that they haven't thought of.

The image/boomerangs on the left shows me wearing Indian earrings called 'Jumki'. It has intricate patterns which are usually seen in indian clothes and designs. I am also wearing a headscarf which represent the culture as well as religion followed in Qatar. This does not mean everyone in Qatar wears it. Being muslim and being taught islamic values/culture growing up, I thought it was quite an appropriate manner to represent the Qatar aspect of my background.

Following the photos, video clips, I did a knife painting. I used this particular style to show the uncertainty/ambiguity I come across over the topic 'where are you from'. I used the primary colours as they're quite the base of the colour wheel. The lines behind were an experiment of an idea of /puzzle' which I further explored (left image below) using photoshop. It shows puzzle pieces and some pieces very blurry to show the uncertainty or the lost piece within. The image used for this was another piece I experimented with opacity and layering. (right image below).

After looking at different options of portraying my idea, moving images was the final verdict. It included trying out ways to represent change; playing with saturation/hue. Representing Indian and Qatari background using patterns I made.It also includes music background. I took the liberty to add western music as well to show thewestern influence in me growing up which exists even today. All of it still exists and helps me grow. There were a few trials run to pick the right tunes for the clip. Language was another method tested in the process of making the video. The puzzle idea was further developed into taking bits off from the subject itself to show the hollowness. It helped show the patterns through. The following clips/images shows the making of the video.