Video Out

Static Forces

Interested in identifying and interrogating the ways in which bodies are controlled, in 'Static Forces,' I blow up 28 balloons printed to look like globes, rub them on my hair, and stick them to the wall. By rubbing the balloons on my hair, I create this invisible force to temporarily stick them to the wall, and by repeating this act time and again, I am questioning the artist’s labour and identity.
In this maternal performance of creating and caring, I wonder at what point this action would lose its pleasure, and at what point it becomes absurd and obsessive. As a woman, a person of color, and an immigrant from West Asia, I examine my identity in the world through an absurd labor to create an invisible, but yet powerful, force. This repeated attempt to stick 28 balloons, filled with my breath, on the wall of an institution — MFA’s studios at the University of British Columbia — is a way to address the ways my body is controlled on one hand, and on the other hand, how as an artist, I can interrogate the legible representation of my identity through performance.