The discussion concerns my creative work, Unfamiliar Folds of Expression (2022). I created a performance entitled: "No Boundaries" (2021), exploring archetypes of otherness by drawing on my biographical experience. In the live performance, I entered a gallery hall with a suitcase. In the centre of the room, I saw a square shape, a boundary, made of ‘Stop’ or ‘Caution’ tape. As I tried to cross that boundary, the caution tape prevented me from crossing. Finally, I put my suitcase aside and tried to rip off that tape with a caution sign. My determination to break those boundaries and find a way to move forward pushed my fears away. I managed to cross it but wanted to erase that square caution shape. I opened up my suitcase, filled with soil, and spread it over to hide the caution boundary. I wrote “No boundaries” on it and left the space. The four corners of the square shape symbolise the four directions of north, east, south and west, whereas the universal circle shape symbolises movement. As a natural organic material, soil symbolises the earth, and in a broader context, it signifies growth.
The piece highlights the challenges of the migration process while crossing the border. Being a migrant over the last fifteen years, I have lived and travelled across different places. Through my migration experience, I encountered tangible and intangible boundaries that seemed to build walls instead of enabling ways to connect people.
Through my creative research Unfamiliar Folds of Expression (2022), a narrative is constructed around a series of archetypes of migrant others to voice discrimination, which represents the elements and factors affecting migrants and the host country, and how our economic and political policies create differences between them. I use black and yellow as my primary colours, depicting a boundary (tape).
