Woven Roots: exploring immigrant identity, cultural heritage, and social change through symbolic art

Abstract

In my thesis, "Woven Roots: Exploring Immigrant Identity, Cultural Heritage and Social Change Through Symbolic Art," over time, the focus of my artwork has become more defined. My pieces now reflect cultural identity through the use of symbols. Relocating from Bangladesh to Canada profoundly deepened and personalized my understanding of cultural identity. This geographical and emotional distance heightened my awareness of what I had left behind, the textures, rituals, and visual language that shaped my upbringing. In response, I began to incorporate these cultural symbols into my artwork, using them to reconnect and reflect. They became a visual vocabulary through which I could express the layered emotions that come with displacement, longing, and identity in flux. While researching the topic, I became conscious of the colonial history of my culture and how it reshaped the culture of Bangladesh. This curiosity led me to explore the status of women in the post-colonial era, a subject that felt inherently significant to me as a woman. To examine this idea, I have integrated symbols from traditional Bengali scroll paintings alongside my own symbolic language, illustrating how my culture has transformed over time and how the lasting impact of colonization continues to shape my country.