Segmented into 4 chapters that address my exploration of "identity," this website includes projects undertaken during my master’s study at the Piet Zwart Institute. It accompanies my written thesis as a discussion around my lens-based art practice. Throughout my work, the lens acts and is considered as a metaphor for looking and being looked at. Focusing on my identity, my analysis extends into artist Trinh T. Minh-ha’s philosophy of using the lens to “speak not about identity but to speak nearby.1” I speak near my identity with the lens.2 I articulate my identity as linked to notions of image, place, feeling and personal history.
Chapter 1 begins by critiquing identity through representation. Chapter 2 looks at maps as an abstraction of belonging. Chapter 3 visualizes identity as an abstract sense of shared kinship and feeling. Chapter 4 is about returning to a land and engaging with the lens as rendered history. These chapters serve as records of my research project. This website is both archive and web publication.