CYOA Rhythms is a video installation exploring ’alien nation’ themes — aliens, alienation, alien integration — which characterized and catalyzed the mindscape and soundscape of the Caribbean, and subsequently Caribbean carnival cultures. Similar themes have been mirrored in the US-UK inner-city immigrant communities of the 70s-80s where rap and hip-hop became the locus of inner-city social transformation. This installation presents rhythmic waves in a globalization tape loop, taking its aesthetic cues from the scratch video movement — video collage projections in 80s London/NYC nightclubs, constructed from popular TV, imbued with politically subversive meaning. As ocean waves ebb and flow, carrying elements from shore to shore, cultural influences traverse continents echoing historical patterns. An exploration of issues of post-memory and intersectionality through intertextuality, this installation work examines cyclical repetition in migration, globalization, community friction and artistic intervention.
