HANNAH SOMERS

I Found a Place investigates my supposed ethnicity used as a constant explanation for my racial identity. In this project, I explore my understanding of my Trinidadian culture from an outsider’s perspective. Reflecting a lack of experience resulting from the culture not being something my family prominently practised in my home while growing up. In my house, there are objects that I grew up thinking represented my Trinidadian culture when, in reality, they hold a false connection to a place. Through this project, I investigate the significance and falsehood of the objects’ that I have connections to that also universally represent racist and exoticized stereotypes that tourist consumerism feeds into. To address these object’s lack of place I brought them into the studio, a maker’s space, to create a context to analyze and decipher a place for them within my current life, while simultaneously investigating my place within my Trinidadian culture. This project shows the process of investigating my cultural identity through the items that have mislead me in my pursuit.