Tracey Rose
Raison d’Être (2009)
This film depicts Rose’s reimagined story of Mami Wata, an African deity and mythical creature. In various narratives from across the African continent and its diaspora, she is described as having a female torso and a lower body that resembles a fish’s tail. Contact with the water spirit leads to initiation into the supernatural world, bringing wealth, health and beauty. In the artist’s film, Mami Wata preens herself on a riverbank while a boat approaches. Onboard is a young girl by the name of Verida. The goddess jumps into the water and swims towards the boat, choking on oil and nuclear waste.
This encounter stirs Verida into action. She organizes a protest march to save Mami Wata from the polluted river and refuses to eat fish. Verida symbolizes the power of the youth to change society. Rose’s film uses techniques from French New Wave cinema that were popular in the 1950s and 1960s. The narration is in French with English subtitles written by the artist in the style of her drawings. The story is told in episodic fragments, like a montage interwoven with pictures, text and music.
The oral tradition is translated into an experimental visual art form, using African folklore to comment on contemporary socio-political issues, including the environmental destruction caused by modern industrial processes.