Keri Rossiter explores the "Mixed Race Problem". She curiously explores ways to express cultural identity through performance, focusing particularly on how we define our identity. Do we define ourselves through nostalgia, experience, relationships, or reflections?
Keri's work deals with race and gender, challenging visual prejudice and derogatory labels. Sometimes difference in appearance is celebrated, difference can be unique and special or it can be the sudza pot of discrimination and alienation. Some people associate passing with deceit, is it deceit? is it survival? is it something else that hasn't been deciphered yet. That's what this project seeks to explore.
But she does not stop there. Keri does the work of investigating the desire to identify, label and compartmentalise and inevitably rank individuals. She investigates why we are offended by racial slurs and what alienation feels like. She asks what defines us and more importantly who defines us.
Am I defined by my gender? Am I defined by my race? Are you defined by your disability? Are you defined by your failure? Are we defined by others? Are we defined by ourselves?
Keri's work deals with race and gender, challenging visual prejudice and derogatory labels. Sometimes difference in appearance is celebrated, difference can be unique and special or it can be the sudza pot of discrimination and alienation. Some people associate passing with deceit, is it deceit? is it survival? is it something else that hasn't been deciphered yet. That's what this project seeks to explore.
But she does not stop there. Keri does the work of investigating the desire to identify, label and compartmentalise and inevitably rank individuals. She investigates why we are offended by racial slurs and what alienation feels like. She asks what defines us and more importantly who defines us.
Am I defined by my gender? Am I defined by my race? Are you defined by your disability? Are you defined by your failure? Are we defined by others? Are we defined by ourselves?
Questions Keri Raises
Is racial definition in the eye of the beholder?
Can performance resist visual prejudice?
Can the mixed race performer be anything but “other”?
Can performance resist visual prejudice?
Can the mixed race performer be anything but “other”?
Aims and Objectives
To resist mono-racial identifications
To employ domestic materials but never create a sense of “home”
To prompt a reconsideration of the spectator’s visual prejudice
To employ domestic materials but never create a sense of “home”
To prompt a reconsideration of the spectator’s visual prejudice