Never-ending Journey: Living in-between simultaneous realities

Abstract

This supporting paper provides the chronological background development in relation to my studio practice, as an international student, an Iranian female artist, a newcomer to Canada, a dreamer, and a traveller, who is experiencing living in two cultures simultaneously. This paper contains reflective statements, critical statements, and a visual and written narrative about my journey of living in between places, moments, multiple identity constructions, and mixed language identities. In this paper, I have a thematic approach to each exhibition I installed throughout my two-year MFA program at the Department of Art at University of Calgary. I am a traveller who starts her story by narrating her personal perspective on the spatial changes in her life, displacement of identities and places, and her second language identity as a result of migration. In my research creation process, I constantly raise questions such as: How can I picture the sentiment of wavering between two simultaneous realities? How can I express the consequences of being ‘present’ in two separate cultures at once? How can I embody the swings in multiple added layers and fragments of my identity and their relation to place? And how can I address the notion of searching for the perception of belonging, while I am undergoing living and being in-between? My endeavour is to contextualize and articulate my creative research in a cohesive and clear way. I ask my reader to walk with me in every phase of this effort and experience part of my journey.