The Multiformity

I once told a tutor ‘F*ck you’ in front of everyone in the room.

Just hear me out..

It wasn't intended to the poor dude - which I later explained, but to the assignment he set us: To write a ‘reduction’ of who we are. A concise statement that captures our essence.

It can be quite powerful to bundle who you are at any given moment into such clarity. I'd always quote Whitman's ‘I am multitudes’. Why didn’t I just use that?

But something was different that day.
I was a visibly Muslim woman in the 'era-of-ISIS'. Reduced almost daily to the same standard labels on the street, in the media, in government policy. Make that the same ONE standard label when Muslims made the front page.
In this case, the Paris attacks had occurred days before. I was at wits end, full of resentment from the anxiety Muslims and people of colour carry whenever an attack takes place.

Individuality is a privilege that isn’t extended to all. Expecting someone to stay shrunk and obedient within the confines of a stereotype, whilst others freely roam, thrive and enjoy security is jarring.
Artmaking has always allowed me the multiformity that other spaces might've not welcomed, or benefited from. To not use it as such during times of bigoted narrowness was to go against how I used art in the first place.

Being reduced has been my reality for years. It is nothing new to me. But I will commit no such violence to myself.