Negotiating Culture Juried Art Exhibition, 2024
Curator: Soheila Esfahani
City of Kitchener
 

The name that is given to a newborn conveys many meanings, such as good wish, hope and expectation from the parents and family, marks of the generations and birthplace. For immigrants, the original names contain ethnic, social, cultural, and historical information of their background. Due to various reasons, when an immigrant enters a new country, choosing a local name to use as preferred name at school and workplace becomes common practice. This adopted name is chosen for the convenience of a new language environment; to embody different social identity and culture adaptation. It becomes their new identity in the “third space”. The preferred name that conveys different meanings from the original one expresses complex emotions: excitement, hope, uncertainty, and anxiety of the new identity the new name brings.

I have printed the business cards with translated original names on one side and preferred names on the opposite side to represent the different part of the identities embedded in each individual. When viewers walking by the installation, they will see all English names on one direction and all cultural/ethnic names in translation on opposite direction. All the names are from real people. 

The minimalism style is adopted to draw viewer’s attention to name only. This artwork invites viewers to think about the culture and social challenges in various aspects of immigrants’ life.

The exhibition will be travelling to Martin Luther University College at Wilfred Laurier University in December and January 2025.