Janira Moncayo
Identity Erasure, 2020
Identity Erasure is a self-reflection video-art piece, where the artist looks back on the progression of internalized racism throughout her life and the long-term change from a passive receiver of stereotypes and micro-aggressions into an active oppressor of her culture and herself. The video uses recollected print materials, such as old photographs of her family, children illustration books and high-school yearbook photos, exploring the performance of race through physical objects. Identity Erasure takes the first step of recognition of a colonized mindset towards a life-long path of healing, forgiveness and constant unlearning of oppression.
Janira Moncayo is a video artist pursuing her BFA in Media Arts at the Alberta University of the Arts. She works primarily in video-art and installation with the goal of redefining minority’s misrepresentation in mainstream media, and as means of healing her relationship with her ethnicity. Through her videos, she recognizes her responsibility as a woman of color to decolonize her role as her own oppressor on inner and interpersonal levels. She reflects on the emotional and mental burden of colonization and takes control of the narrative that has traditionally excluded her.