As a student of MPhil studies in Cultural Studies at the University of the West Indies, my practice is informed by autoethnographic research. Grounded in a methodology I define as co-imagination, I treat artistic production as a site for knowledge generation, where self-reflection, community engagement, and cultural theory converge. This approach enables me to interrogate my motivations for making work and to consider the ethical responsibilities of artists whose work extends beyond the personal to the public sphere.

A core dimension of my research concerns transformation and identity formation within festival traditions, particularly Trinidad Carnival. I theorise Carnival as an embodied space where difference is not only visible but affirmed, and where creative expression becomes a political practice of self-definition. My work draws upon the ritual cycle between Divali and Shivraatri, reading this period through the Hindu cosmological narrative of the Samudra Manthan (the churning of the cosmic ocean). I frame this myth as an analytical tool for understanding processes of negotiation, emergence, and becoming. The movement from darkness to light in this cosmological cycle parallels the negotiations of visibility, agency, and transformation that I explore through masquerade and installation.

My current research maps the Samudra Manthan onto the historical trajectories of the Triangular Trade, using co-imagination to reframe Caribbean history through cosmological metaphor. This parallel positions colonialism as a churning process in which creation and destruction operate simultaneously—an interpretation aligned with the dynamic interplay of the Trimurti (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva). This framework supports a reading of Caribbean identity as a continual cycle of making, preserving, and unmaking, resonating with broader discourses of memory, and cultural survival.

I integrate this conceptual work into my performance practice. Since 2023, I have portrayed the traditional mas character Soumayree, linked to the Hindu Goddess Durga. My efforts have contributed to the revival of this character within the National Carnival Commission’s Traditional Mas competition after more than thirteen years, signalling renewed visibility for Indo-Caribbean spiritual iconography in national performance spaces.

My community-based practice is facilitated through Kazillion Kollectiv, an art lab I founded to support shared creative labour. Through collaborative mas-making, knowledge exchange, exhibitions, and artist talks, the lab functions as a site of informal pedagogy and cultural production. These collaborative environments extend my research into practice-based inquiry, foregrounding collective creativity as a method for understanding identity, belonging, and transformation.

Across these interconnected projects, my work seeks to enact the relationship between mythology, memory, and contemporary Caribbean cultural practice. By situating masquerade, festival performance, and collaborative making within larger intellectual frameworks, I aim to contribute to scholarly conversations on cosmology, identity formation, and the politics of cultural expression in the Caribbean.