Faculty of Art

Photography

Kinzi Dempsey

Belraha - بالراحة

An amalgamation of moving image-work, voice, original music composition and object portraiture, this collaborative piece comes as a culmination of Kinzi's thesis research at OCADU this past year. While her practice has encapsulated a variety of forms during the course of her research- poetry, zine-making, video, photography & writing- she wanted to seat her individual narrative & affective research within the context of her communities. The voices speaking are her school-mates who agreed to reading her transliterated poem "Belraha - بالراحة" in spite of their language barriers, the old TV seen in the footage was salvaged from her Egyptian grandmother's apartment, and members of Kinzi's immediate family contributed to the filming, editing, transportation, translation, and general execution of this project.

“This piece seeks to be a representation of who I am in the context of others: While attempting to sort through new findings of the self through my affective & cultural research, I wanted to allow the reality of my narrative to be seated within the reality of my communities. Before my thesis research began, I had hoped to have experimented with notions of linguistic affective barriers, cultural borders & hybridity enough to be able to lead others into spaces of play & border-crossing through my work. I discovered, however, that there was a lot more 'inner work' to be done than I had anticipated, and I found myself in dizzying spaces of self-realization and discomfort as I began to 'get the lay of the land', both physically and metaphysically. This piece honours my fear. It honours the grief of not yet being brave enough, a song made from the sounds of alien shame and hybrid hurt. It’s the moment before I move, the story of a particular point in a journey that may not be linear. Ironically, perhaps sharing this space honestly with others allows me to experience greater connection, even as I confront where I feel utterly alone. I am hoping to approach it all "بالراحة", with tenderness, care and comfort for myself and all who I may encounter. ”