These three works are the first entries in an autobiographical hooked rug series. Formally, these rugs draw on my background as a filmmaker, mixing the language of textiles with that of cinema, notably cinematographic and storytelling principles.

Untitled 1 and Untitled 2 explore and celebrate the spiritual aspects of erotic love, distanced from the male gaze, a concept that was first discussed in film theorist Laura Mulvey’s essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. The gaze that I bring to Untitled 1 and Untitled 2 aims to convey a heterosexual union of equality, in which my most intimate self can co-exist in ecstatic love with my partner’s. Additionally, because my partner is Mi’kmaw, and I am settler, this union exists within the private sphere of the Treaty Relationship—a space of healing, equality, respect, and gentle love.

Untitled 3 is a self-portrait of my biracial identity. I am Tamil Sri Lankan through my father and French Canadian through my mother. In this piece, I explore how, in monoracial society, mixed-race individuals are pressured into choosing one racial identity over another. But in reality, the brown and white parts within myself cohabit and intermingle and are fluid and complex.

These three works were exhibited in the group exhibition TOIL HERE: Works from Rural Mi’kma’ki at the Khyber Centre for the Arts in Halifax, Nova Scotia, June 30–July 24, 2021. www.khyber.ca/toil-here-works-from-rural-mikmaki/