Video

What is my Identity?

Kinga Araya

1995, 09:00 minutes, colour, English, Polish

TAPECODE 507.01

From the opening scenes of cloth pins "dancing" on a rack, through the images of the family photographs, a wooden chair, an expired student I.D. card and fragmented parts of the body, the video opens up a dialogue of personal identity. In particular, a recorded conversation between Kinga and Delfina posits many questions regarding their identifications as either Polish Canadian and/or Canadian-Polish. Is it or is it no longer possible to identify oneself with a fixed geographic place? This introductory, 3 minute long discussion in English, is unexpectedly cut. Polish poetry sung by Demarczyk, originally a backdrop for the conversation, becomes the dominant soundtrack of the video. The subsequent images of photographs, fingers pointing to details of the photographs, the rotating chair, the expressive and fragmented eyes and mouths of Kinga and Delfina emphasize only a fragment of lived and experienced reality. The last image of the piece displays the family pictures held by cloth pins on a white metal rack. When the music gently fades out do does the image of the rack, full of personal photographs that elicit a basic philosophical question about our raison d'etre.kl7u

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