Anni Movsisyan

I think that it is important to introduce myself here as an Armenian-Iranian-British woman. I often get away with seeming ‘white’ of some kind – Portuguese, Brazilian, Spanish, French, Italian – appearing as “exotic” whitenesses. I used to embrace people’s guesses as disguises; I would rather be seen as a cool carioca from Rio or a mademoiselle parisienne, than to hear things like, “where’s that?”, “did you say Albania? Sorry, Romania?”, or, “But you don’t look Iranian”. Ambiguity or invisibility is a privilege, but I wish I didn’t have to be in disguise in order not to be negatively racialized.

My practice generally focuses on questions surrounding the subjects of identity, social conventions and their relationship to consumer culture and western society in particular. Personal experiences regarding culture and identity, and satirical humour, have led me to examine both my own and other people’s unique experiences with culture, as a tool to critique the power of dominant cultural structures.