Dahlia Shoukry
Colloquium
31 March 2019
The ways that an individual chooses to identify themselves is important because it specifically targets the key attributes in one's life. For both Wendy Red Star and Kambui Olujimi, they used their home, personal narrative, and mythology to compose their work which projects how they choose to identify themselves.
For Red Star, she decided to show her idea of home through her collection My Home Is Where My Tipi Sits. The Crow reservation hold their Tipi’s very close to them and their culture. Through the bright colors, broken down “rez” cars, sweat lodge, signs, and churches, one is able to capture the essence of her community. In Olujimi work, he beautifully creates a sense of finding yourself and being lost. Olujimi emphasis this idea by using the night sky. Space creates a sense of mystery and questions that fill a humans mind. This symbolizes the life of the main character Iku who goes on a journey trying to find out new things about himself. However, his storyline is convoluted and hard to understand. This correlates with the confusing and difficulty with understanding space. Therefore, a persons life and way they grow up has many twists and turns that are not linear. There are many factors that play in a persons life which makes people complex individuals. For both Red Star and Olujimi, they show how people lives are complex. On the outside, a persons life seems simple and can have a prejudice towards it. For Native Americans, it is their home being viewed as maybe belonging to someone who is homeless.n Olujimi shows it by showing the complexity in a persons life and how there are many layers to a person’s life.
Both of these works represents how one can express their personal narrative. For Red Star, it was how she can break the pressure from outsiders on how authentic a Native person is. She wanted to show her family to represent the different types of Natives that are living in society. She points out how the most “authentic Indians” are her father's generation because they are able to embrace both pop culture and Native traits without needed to conform to just one. The personal narrative in Olujimi work was expressing how outside forces like the universe can control a person's destiny. Throughout Iku life, he encountered situations that were already set up and that he almost had no free will and that it was all fate. Nallah has a past, present, and future, triplet. Therefore, when something happens in the past its repercussion affects the present and the future is set up because of things the present does. All of the events are set up and have a purpose that relates to what happens in life. Although the two artists take different routes in expressing their personal narratives in their story, they both represent how personal narratives are influenced by those around them. Humans grow a lot form their surroundings and as much as the person is important in a personal narrative, so are the people standing by their side during their journey through life.
A person's identity also revolves around the culture the person grew up in. A huge part of one's culture involves the stories that are passed down through mythology. For Red Star, the legend of the Little People was passed down in their culture. SDhe explains the evolution of the legend and the customs that go with it. At first, they were afraid because they believed it was where people who were sick went to die. However, over time they shot arrows through the gap as an example of respect. They then began bringing beads and gifts with them as they prayed. The legend continued that the tribes could not pass the area because the Little People would attack them and rip the hearts out of their horses. Olujimi used mythology to explain the stories through persons, animals, and object chart constellations. These showed the relationship between fact and fiction or reality and belief. The preexisting stories of the constellations were made into new Mythological characters. Olujimi then looks at how limited mythology can be and how mythology may be very intertwined and confusing but it also can explain how the world was before and how it will be in the future. Both works help explain the world and how the sorries that are passed down are focused on explaining the mysteries of the world. Both take an unrealistic approach and include fictional characters within them.
For my self-portrait, I will be creating a video and story of my life that will focus on specific events that have occurred so far. It is like myths because it is a way to express a story by representing it in another way than just talking. Myths are used to help understand situations and so will my project. My project will aid my life story and be a second element to help viewers learn about me. I do not think I will add mythic elements because I want it to be as real as possible. I will maybe add symbols in a sense of something that is not the real ting represents the real thing but not more than that. My heritage is very Americanized. So even though my father is formed in Egypt, my family as a whole is Americanized with American traditions. I am close to my Egyptian roots but not to the extent that we have myths. My project will be like the museum because it will be a way to tell a story through an artistic lens. I will not simply be telling my story verbally or just writing it. I will be combining audio, visual, and written work together to capture my life through my project.
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