Return to Jahilia
Return to Jahilia is an experiment in moving image narrative, loosely inspired by Lev Kuleshov experiments. Exerts from Rushdie’s “Satanic Verses” are told in 3 different ways. Through this process I hoped to understand the effects of changing various elements of moving image. This is not an unbiased quantifiable procedure, but a more random process, with different parts of the story used for each segment. It becomes difficult to know what is changing due to the performer, as opposed to the words they are saying. The meaning of the words become less important, and users may be more drawn to the sound of voice, backdrops, and music, as well as colours and tone. Does this make the viewer frustrated, or is the physical nature of lights and sounds enough to keep interest, and is narrative meaning therefore not required?
The Beach
The beach has often been a place of first contact, invasion, and a contested boarder. For me as a queer person of colour, the passing of time brings up thoughts of progress, rights, politics, integration, etc. I think of a colonial past, leading into apartheid, the reconciliation process and present-day identity politics. I was initially inspired by Agnes’s Varda’s “Ulysse” (1982) and tried to show the passing of time by contrasting a still image from the past (My husband, our dog and myself in a park) with “current” video footage of those characters and that place. Changing the location to a place with more significance then lead to the use of voice over and it quickly evolved into a piece that explores the history of places and my relation to that place.
An Investigation of South Asian representation in UK/US cinema (Part 1 & Part 2)
James Haywood Rolling Jr. writes about the misrepresentation of groups of people making them invisible. This form of “masking” of various cultures occurs across all forms of visual art, entertainment, historical documentation, etc. While investigating representations of South Asian men in contemporary American cinema I hope to understand how portrayals of people like myself affects how I think about my place in society and how I should behave. By masking out and isolating these characters from the video footage I hope to “rescue” this characters from the limited characters; the semi autistic geek who is awkward amongst women; the corrupt greedy businessmen, etc.