Kazi Reza
National Identity
I have tried to keep my collage as simple as possible. Instead of putting various things on my collage to represent something, I just put flags that represent my family history throughout the years. I believe flags serve as the biggest symbol to identifying the types of experiences families may have been through. The flags show what we have been through and how we have gotten to where we are today.
I put the Bangladeshi flag to serve as my background. All of my family members are tied to this country and all of them identify themselves as a Bengalis. I made the flag out of old shalwar-kameez pieces to represent a part my culture. Just like saris, shalwar-kameez is another form of traditional clothing. In the top right hand corner I put the British flag. This is to show the time period when Britain ruled over my people, more specifically my grandfather. My grandfather served under the British army during World War II. When Britain finally gave us our freedom on August 14, 1947 we became a nation called Pakistan. The flag on the bottom is the Pakistani flag; the moon and the star on the flag represent the Islamic culture of the nation. My family lived in East Pakistan and we were a part of that nation until 1971.
In 1971 East Pakistan announced their independence from West Pakistan. My dad fought in the war that followed between the two states. On December 15, 1971 East Pakistan triumphed and became the nation Bangladesh. The green part of the flag represents the greenness of the country and red represents the blood of the freedom fighters that lost their lives during the war with West Pakistan. It is in Bangladesh where I was born. I lived there until I was seven when I moved to the U.S. The American flag in the top left corner represents the assimilation into American culture. Although I spent most of life in America I still identify as a Bengali first. That is why I put the flag in the background. The Bangladeshi flag is the only way I can relate to all of my family members because it represents our culture and tradition.
December 13th, 2006 at 7:40 pm
Kazi –
I love the simplicity of your collage, and especially the materials that you used to make it. The shalwar-kameez has got a fantastic looking sheen and texture to it, and the arrangement of your flags gives the collage a nice feeling of symmetry to it. I like the use of flags to represent family–I used flags in the background of my collage, as well.