MOTHER’S TONGUE
2 minutes (loop), 2019
In the wake of Trump’s muslim ban, I examined my mother’s camcorder footage taken during my visit to Iran in 2009, the first and last time I visited my parent’s home country. Presented as a series of vignettes, Mother’s Tongue is a rotoscoped animation consisting of over 800 hand painted frames, a meticulous attempt to reclaim, remember and editorialize the only connection to my Iranian passport.
One does not have to understand the context or words that are spoken in the familial moments depicted— these are universal experiences. However, to a farsi-speaking audience it discloses a second meaning: the vignettes reveal instances of misunderstanding and miscommunication, emphasizing an obvious cultural barrier between the children depicted and the space they exist in.
“Through muddled noises of children screaming in the courtyard and aunties with accentuated, thick eyebrows politicking in the living room, Tandis’ struggle to assert herself as a first-generation immigrant while embracing identity through family roots deeply resonates...”
Mother’s Tongue was exhibited as part of Before We Were Banned, a series of events subverting the Muslim Ban 1.0 by cultivating a platform for creatives of the seven countries on the list to draw their own picture and write their own narrative.