SANGANO BEACH, ANGOLA
Work Summary:
The video visually depicts a journey of realisation. Situating myself in relation to communication, sound and history whilst exploring themes of detachment, loss and colonialism. The use of shadow is a recurrent theme throughout the video, aiming to emphasise this sense as well as loss and blurring the lines between reality and fiction
Context:
This work started as a personal exploration of the disconnect I felt to my father’s home country of Angola through never having been there or taught the language. As I began creating the work, it became apparent to me that whilst I feel a disconnect on a singular level, any country that has been colonised is removed from their language and culture pre colonialism. Kimbundu, one of the native languages of Angola, is spoken by my father in the video. It took a lot of research to get accurate, as translations are not widely accessible.
Research and Process:
This project was born out of a piece of writing. I wanted to imagine what it would feel like to be in Angola, speaking Portuguese. I was interested to hear what it would sound like to speak Portuguese so I used AI to clone my voice which can be heard in the beginning sequence. To visualise this idea, the internet seemed important as a portal in gaining access to a place I otherwise was never exposed to. I then became fascinated with sound and sought a way to visualise it which led me to experimenting with cymatics. I wanted to demonstrate the frustration of two people saying the same thing, feeling the same way, hearing each other, but never truly understanding what is being said. This too came about through writing. To tie it all together, I found some archive footage of Angola pre-independence which inspired a conversation with my father about that time. His response can be heard at the end.
Work Summary:
The video visually depicts a journey of realisation. Situating myself in relation to communication, sound and history whilst exploring themes of detachment, loss and colonialism. The use of shadow is a recurrent theme throughout the video, aiming to emphasise this sense of loss and blurring the lines between reality and fiction.