Emerald Repard-Denniston

I explore the idea of isolation during the pandemic, specifically my own personal narrative and what it feels like to be a visible minority. The ways in which my body has navigated through life has been uncomfortable, Toronto’s China towns feel foreign, China my country of birth has a great disconnect and is only visualized through photos and stories that my parents took when coming to adopt me, and North Vancouver has brought me up to assimilate socially and culturally to whiteness. It has left me with an identity crisis and has also left me internally racist. I struggle a lot mentally trying to understand my intersections and feel as though my body is interpreted in many ways. During the rise of hate crimes I roam the streets publicly afraid, I get stereotyped and I stereotype myself. My white-washed mind struggles to validate my Asian experiences during this time, and my communities both lack understanding. This cut-out motion animation narrates the topics I’ve listed above, to show fragmentation. This work interrupts, interrogates, and reframes different ways of thinking and seeing.