Forgetting (2)2023
Video, performance13:14
Forgetting (2) is a video reflecting on the relationship between memory, caste, lineage, and the potential generative nature of forgetting after the complicated history/historiography of Indo-Caribbean indentured servitude. Playing with/in the format of the video game walkthrough and pulling from traditional game design tropes like the labyrinth, the inventory system, and the Fog of War, I interview my mother about her shifting relationship to national and cultural identity as an Indo-Caribbean immigrant to America. In tandem, I navigate a 3D labyrinthine space picking up inventory objects that seem initially innocuous but are labeled as “nation,” “caste,” or “lineage.” The video ends with my in-game character forgetting all of these inventory objects and flying out of the labyrinth to the tune of Vashti Bunyan’s “I’d Like to Walk Around Your Mind Someday.”
This work has been shown at the VCUArts Candidacy Exhibition and in a group called Amigxs Gringas at Visible Records in Charlottesville, VA.