Nomaqhawe Molife

Passing

My work is an exploration of identity negotiation in the everyday lives of migrants. I utilise the sociological term ‘passing’, which refers to the crossing of a social boundary by stigmatised or marginalised individuals. While this term is commonly used to refer to racially ambiguous-looking individuals passing as a person from outside their racial category, I use it in my work beyond the crossing of racial borders, to refer to the variety of ways immigrants (re)present themselves in order to pass as a local or someone of ‘tolerable’ identity, to secure a sense of belonging. I do this through a series of photographic self-portraits.

Immigrants face a multitude of microaggressions and develop tactics to try manage negativity towards them. One such tactic is passing. I use balloons to represent the diversity of identity traits that make us who we are, a similar artistic tool used by Athi Patra Ruga. I deviate slightly from Ruga, who once hung 250 liquid-filled balloons from his body, weighing him down, to illustrate how ideas of identity can be burdensome. Instead, I fill my balloons with air, putting them on my head to emphasise the fragility of these ideas we hold dear in our imaginations. I use the colour red to (re)present traits from the host nation that immigrants begin to embody in order to pass in the different spaces they occupy; or red and pink to indicate how immigrants may selectively pick out parts of themselves from their own backgrounds that conform to their environment in order to secure a sense of belonging and home.

Performance, 2022