Melise Djemal,

Primary Art Teacher

‘Sediments’

“Cultural identities come from somewhere, have histories. But, like everything which is historical, they undergo constant transformation.”

(Hall, 2016: 225)

Who am I? What is my place in this world and my role within it?

As a primary school teacher, I have observed how children deal with these complex questions by trying to make sense of the multifarious nature of being human.

Since 2014, the increasing pressures on schools to actively promote the fundamental British Values have challenged the roles of schools as sites for identity formation and British culture. As a British born Turkish Cypriot, I question what it means to ‘be’ British and how this becoming takes form through layers and sediments of personal and cultural encounters.

Through the use of layered prints, consisting of family photographs and personal documents, I present my various personal and cultural references that have constructed who I am as a multi-cultured child raised in London. My practice and self-analysis aims to highlight the intersecting and sometimes opposing discourses of British identity, revealing that Britishness is not a singular thing, but constituted by multiple intersections, layers and smudges.

Hall, S. (2019). Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity and Diaspora (D. Morley, Ed.). Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11smnnj