Cindy Islam’s latest work invites us on an intimate tour of her remedial space – an insight into the healing practise of a diasporic Iraqi girl. Characterised by cultural contrast and body sovereignty, the experience urges the viewer to contend with their preconceptions of what gender, culture and identity can look like.
The film was a manifestation of an experience that many diasporic children are familiar with; growing up in a strict and often violent household where your body is policed, trying to navigate the worlds that we exist within, whilst simultaneously trying to forge a sense of self. Unlike the mind, which is the internal sense of self, the body exists as a social entity – the external boundary of the expression of self – making it susceptible to policing and control. While this narrative is not new or ground-breaking (within diasporic circles it’s discussed a lot) – this specific exhibition of that experience is something I found to be incredibly rousing and expressive. Aside from just highlighting the issue, Cindy presented a form of healing and redefinition through movement, art, expression and a reclamation of body autonomy. The juxtaposition and enmeshment of Arabic and western sound, clothing, decor and style, the sexualisation of the body and the expression of passion – this process was, to me, a subversion of cultural norms, which exist to restrain the racialised female body.
Being present in that space felt at once comforting and intrusive – a ‘fuck you’ to the policing of our movement as women, evoking feelings of deliverance and sadness simultaneously. Cindy captured the essence of this diasporic experience in a poignant, unnerving, yet totally liberating way – commanding the room with authority and elusivity, portraying herself as tantalising yet utterly intangible – freeing her body from the grips of external control.
Inaya Hussain
Reviewing for Off/Stage Zine
Name of Production: Bedroom Frequencies
Year of Production: 2021
Venue: Take Me Somewhere Festival
Cast: Cindy Islam
Director: n/a
Writer: n/a
Music/Composer: Urban feral (sound artist)
Designer/Lighting Designer: Siobhan Lawson
Producers/Production Company: Tramway Performance Now (commissioned)
Other Creatives: Fi Nicholson (Video Editor), Alexander Storey Gordon (Camera Operator)
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| Reviewed by Inaya Hussain | See more Off/Stage review bytes on IG |