REHEMA CHACHAGE
Yee Kididi Kiziha (It is indeed pleasing)
‘Yee Kididi Kiziha’ is a Chasu phrase taken from a Christian Hymanal which is famous to my grandmother’s household whenever family gathers. In English, the phrase loosely translates as ‘It is indeed Pleasing’ (to see people/family gather). Family and togetherness are central to this PhD, which proposes togetherness as a keyword, and a methodology for tracing the matriline. I am particularly interested in exploring the kind of knowledges one can access/discover (in the rare, but very special moments of togetherness); and in observing ways in which such knowledges can be explored intergenerationally through collaboration and preserved artistically through one’s studio practice.
Rehema Chachage is a visual artist whose practice can be viewed as a performative archive which untraditionally collects stories, rituals and other oral traditions in different media (performance, photography, video, text as well as physical installations); which traces hi/stories directly tied to (and connecting with) her matrilineage; and, which utilizes methodologies which are both embodied and instinctual, employing written texts, oral and aural stories, melodies, and relics from several re-enacted/performed rituals as source of research.
