Symbols of My Freedom (2024)

The geometric shapes moves into four different motions to create layers on top of my photograph: abstract form of a figure, form of a veiled woman (freedom of choice), the word “read” in Arabic (freedom of mind), and an abstract symbol of a tail bone (freedom of soul).

The use of the projected animation on to my photograph is to convey how ideologies can figuratively and literally impose onto people. As my Kazakh national identity has deep roots of history of colonization, I want to reflect on how the Soviet-era propaganda has influenced the perception and identity of my people, the Kazakhs. I personally struggle to define who I am, a Russian-speaking Kazakh, who was born into Islam but is also a revert.

The veiled-body photograph is not an image but a feeling, feeling of Freedom. Opposed to the Western’s “idea of freedom” with nudity, I choose hijab as a form of being free from societal pressures. As I try to veil myself modestly, I am shapeless, abstract and intangible, therefore I am not to be objectified and subjectivised to the Western’s feminist ideology of “freedom”.