Personal Geographies

Finishing my MFA thesis work has been a labour of love. Completing it during a couple cross-country moves, during a pandemic, while grieving the loss of loved ones has been challenging. But, this work means a lot to me, and I am grateful for the opportunity to be able to share it with others.

Abstract:
Personal Geographies: (Re) Imagining Paths of a Diasporic Existence is an autoethnographic craft exploration on themes of colonialisms (plural because there are many and they intersect in many ways), migration and belonging. This thesis takes a dialectical approach to deconstructing meanings embedded in objects of material culture. It examines, through a combination of traditional craft, and digital design and fabrication, the holistic creation and embodiment of the conceptual and material knowledge of my Black diasporic immigrant experience into objects that renegotiate my relationship between multiple colonized spaces.

Engaging 3D fabrication, historical fabric reproduction, embroidery, and weaving to investigate the use of craft knowledge in excavating a narrative, the work creates objects that bear witnesses to the process of renegotiation. This thesis work interrogates and deconstructs the Jamaican bandana cloth; uses the body as a vehicle for reimagining and re-inscribing spaces of belonging outside of conflicted existing geographies; and draws on weaving as a reflexive conversation between the maker and the object about these themes of colonialism, migration and belonging. These objects do not aim to solve questions of the colonial project. They, instead, bear material witnesses to how a diasporic body can reimagine their place in the world beyond what official multicultural narratives tell.