Date of Award
Spring 6-4-2011
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Photography
First Advisor
Deborah Bright
Second Advisor
Ijlal Muzaffar
Third Advisor
Nathaniel Stein
Abstract
In my work I explore dislocation within a diasporic experience. I use personal and familial accounts of migration, assimilation and reverse culture shock to examine and add to the collective narratives that underlie national as well as individual identities. In reconciling my own sense of loss in having moved away from Pakistan, I appropriate histories, recreate memories and envision futures to mould the present. Investigations of personal experiences inform an analysis of the larger social, political and historical contexts. In my practice I use video, animation and new media technologies to “re-view” archives. My sources include audio and text from political speeches, photographs and videos that I have found and created, as well as writings and poetry I have collected and produced. My written thesis, divided into three sections, offers the layers through which I process my subject matter. In the first section, “Formulating Nations, Forcing Identities,” I examine the inabilities of an archive, whether historical accounts or photographic depictions, to ever be complete. The second section, “Rubato: Found Time,” addresses my formal choices within time-based mediums to articulate the fragility of personal recollections. Finally, “Endless Tihai” consists of my writings and poetry, which are often the seed for my visual work.
Recommended Citation
Siddiqui, Ambereen, "Seven Seas Without" (2011). Masters Theses. 391.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/391
Creative Commons License
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