Tenth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

This presentation will accompany the artwork Passages II in the conference exhibition. In this time of deep human division and conflict, my video work engages my own individual and family histories to question how human beings come to be positioned in society and the world. My Passage/s project asks viewers to contemplate the plights of contemporary crisis migrants and the role that technology-based storytelling plays in the ways we view other human beings, the significance of their plights, and our (dis)regard for one another’s humanity. This video piece makes use of appropriated, online photographic portraits of Rohingya refugee women attempting to make their way to safety. Exploring the connection of my own refugee family to the stories of other crisis migrants, I visually re-contextualize remnants of portraiture, using imagery and absence to engage both the individuals pictured and the viewer.