The "What are you?" project is the result of intense research on ethnicity and individuals with multicultural backgrounds. This installation creates the experience of the simple racial profiling people usually do without thinking or even knowing the person in front of you. The project explores how racial profiling and stereotyping evokes different emotions such as anger, frustration, confusion and discomfort by creating tension.
The main influences on this project have been the stories and experiences of people who constantly experience problems of racial stereotyping or profiling, including my own experience as a Chinese individual raised in Colombia. People would often try to guess if I were Chinese, Korean or even Japanese.
We will always be judged by how we look, how we act and even by our accent or how we sound, and through this project I hope to raise more awareness about the issue of misjudging people and automatic labeling by making others experience it. Ultimately I want to help open eyes of the people who are color blind and through this create more conscience for a less discriminatory world.
