ON BECOMING
How can we understand ourselves if we can’t see what influenced us to become us?
I wonder restlessly about who created this version of myself.
Whose expectations am I contending with?
Which parts have I controlled, and which seeped into my psyche without my awareness?
Who has had agency in me becoming me?
Through still images and time-based media, this work gives form to the invisible social forces that shape and confound our process of becoming while considering who has been witness to the performance. My aim is to understand what is handed down deliberately or subtly infused and the tension between what we mimic and discard.
This work challenges notions of perfection, intentional and subconscious inheritance and considers how we are shaped through generations.
Within this exploration, matrilineal legacy becomes a significant thread.
The project unfolds from alternating points of view — mine, my mother's, and my daughter's, tracing the threads of influence that weave through generations. Through these perspectives, I confront the weight of inherited expectations, traditions, and societal roles. I invite the viewer to contemplate the intergenerational nuances of agency and the ways in which our predecessors shape our identities, knowingly or unknowingly.
Central to this project is the recognition of the unreliability of memory.
Memories, the fragments that construct our personal narratives, are prone to distortion and manipulation. Through this work, I confront the fragmented nature of my own memories, questioning the accuracy of their portrayal. By unveiling the fallibility of memory, I seek to shed light on the subjective and malleable nature of personal recollections and confront the unreliable narrator within me.
