Having two ethnicities, requires two identities.
As someone with two identities, I have been longing to fit-in for nearly all my life. I often ended up in uncomfortable situations, where people expected me to make a choice between my two ethnicities. “What ethnicity do you relate to the most?” or “Which one do you prefer?”. For an ‘in-between’ person, these kinds of questions are impossible to answer. Hence, my project Unganisha, referring to ‘merge’ in Swahili. An installation in which I break through my identity crisis and define what culture and identity mean to me. Unganisha embraces the division and unites the different cultural heritages. It is a visualization of myself as an individual, converging historical conflicts into harmony.
The cloths of patterns are an important aspect of this project. With this I reflect my mixed cultural background through these canvases. Each cloth tells a personal story through the developed patterns, that is related to my ethnicity. Being Kenyan and Italian and adding the Dutch culture which I gradually have embraced. These patterns are a reflection of these three countries. By searching for similarities between these countries, the different ornaments and the way in which each tribe and individuals represent themselves, have inspired me into creating these patterns. Not only, do the cloths emphasize each country as an individual, but at the same time the cloths are also a connected triptych.
Over the years having a multicultural background has been plague with contradictions. Trying to fit in under this constellation takes a lot of effort and patience. Therefore, it is inevitable that people with mixed cultural background will experience an identity crisis. Through these portraits I try to find meaning within my identity. Being part of a tribal bloodline, growing up in a country where christianity is widely practiced and where the majority of the people are Catholics, I see traits of my cultural history. I realise how natural it is wearing a headscarf in my family. The headscarf is a symbol comparable to a crown on a womans’ head. That inspired me to give these headscarves a controversial mixture, between the past and the present. The past as a nod to my ancestors and the present as a modernized pattern cloth that express my multicultural self.
A flag represents a nation. However, coming from multiple countries, I carry multiple flags. For this reason I converted the different countries into a merging unit. Using my patterned cloth, I divided each cloth in two parts and united the three countries together. With these flags I identify myself as ‘one’ in various ways.
✧ Exposition ✧
Exposure: Searching, Structuring, Redefining.
HKU Media Graduation Show
LOU, Utrecht
2021
