Artist Statement

Exploring my hyphenated life of being South Asian- American-Muslim-Woman through visual storytelling. The beauty of a media maker is to be able to incorporate different medium to create a compelling narrative. I use film, photography, animation, and illustrations to express the immigrant narrative of NYC. Coming from a traditional art background, I have found visual mediums to be more intriguing to capture attention. Seeing sketches come to life with the help of animation, replaying videos of people talk about their passion, dream, and life in general, and being able to capture the perfect moment with the help of a camera, is breathtaking. My personal experience of spending hours and hours on YouTube, mindlessly browsing one story after another is a great example of how captivating visual storytelling is. I want to be able to bring that dedication into my own work and have the audience captivated. My passion is to capture food and visualize the interconnection food and immigration especially in a diverse community, such as NYC. Food culture is huge in NYC and is shaped by the different immigrant communities trying to bring their own culture and tradition to the table. And with the diversity you are able to find different stories about life, love, war, and longing. Why go any further if your own backyard is an amalgamation of different cultures and traditions.